ESSsWS CIVIL AND MORAL. ;i 



the supplanting, or the opposing of authority established, for nothing 

 ib iin ue popular than that. The other is the giving licence to pleasures 

 and a voluptuous life. For as for speculative heresies, such as were in 

 ancient times the Arians, and now the Arminians, though they work 

 mightily upon men s wits, yet they do not produce any great alterations 

 in states, except it be by the help of civil occasions. There be three 

 manner of plantations of new sects : by the power of signs and 

 miracles; by the eloquence and wisdom of speech and persuasion ; 

 and by the sword. For martyrdoms, I reckon them amongst miracles, 

 because they seem to exceed the strength of human nature; and I 

 may do the like of superlative and admirable holiness of life. Surely 

 there is no better way to stop the rising of new sects and schisms, than 

 to reform abuses ; to compound the smaller differences : to proceed 

 mildly, and not with sanguinary persecutions ; and rather to take off 

 the principal authors, by winning and advancing them, than to enrage 

 them by violence and bitterness. 



The changes and vicissitudes in wars are many, but chiefly in three 

 things : in the scats or stages of the war; in the weapons} and in the 

 manner of the conduct. Wars, in ancient time, seemed more to move 

 from East to West : for the Persians, Assyrians, Arabians, Tartars, 

 which were the invaders, were all eastern people. It is true, the Gauls 

 were western ; but we read but of two incursions of theirs, the one to 

 Gallo-Gra&amp;gt;cia, the other to Rome. But east and west have no certain 

 points of heaven ; and no more have the wars, either from the east or 

 west, any certainty of observation. But north and south are fixed ; 

 and it hath seldom or never been seen, that the far southern people 

 have invaded the northern, but contrariwise ; whereby it is manifest, 

 that the northern tract of the world is in nature the more martial 

 region, be it in respect of the stars of that hemisphere, or of the great 

 continents that arc upon the north ; whereas the south part, for ought 

 that is known, is almost all sea ; or (which is most apparent) of the 

 cold of the northern parts; which is that which, without aid of disci 

 pline, doth make the bodies hardest, and the courages warmest. 



Upon the breaking and shivering of a great state and empire, you 

 may be sure to have wars. For great empires, while they stand, do 

 enervate and destroy the forces of the natives which they have sub 

 dued, resting upon their own protecting forces : and then -when they 

 fail also, all goes to ruin, and they become a prey. So was it in the 

 decay of the Roman empire, and likewise in the empire of Almaigne, 

 after Charles the Great, every bird taking a feather ; and were not 

 unlike to be fa I to Spain, if it should break. The great accessions and 

 unions of kingdoms do likewise stir up wars. For when a state grows 

 to an over-power, it is like a great Hood, that will be sure to overflow. 

 As it hath been seen in the states of Rome, Turkey, Spain, and others. 

 Look, when the world hath fewest barbarous people, but such as com 

 monly will not marry or generate, except they know means to live, as 

 it is almost everywhere at this day, except Tartary, there is no danger 

 of inundations of people: but when there be great shoals of people, 

 which go on to populate, without foreseeing means of life and sustenta- 



