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less; I have given the rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage.

XXVIII. OF EXPENCE.

RICHES are for spending; and spending for honour and good actions. Therefore extraordinary expence must be limited by the worth of the occasion; for voluntary undoing may be as well for a man's country, as for the kingdom of heaven. But ordinary expence ought to be limited by a man's estate, and governed with such regard as it be within his compass; and not subject to deceit and abuse of servants; and ordered to the best shew, that the bills may be less than the estimation abroad. Certainly if a man will keep but of even hand, his ordinary expences ought to be but to the half of his receipts; and if he think to wax rich, but to the third part. It is no baseness for the greatest, to descend and look into their own estate. Some forbear it, not upon negli gence alone, but doubting to bring themselves into melancholy, in respect they shall find it broken. But wounds cannot be cured without searching. He that cannot look into his own estate at all, had need both choose well those whom he employeth, and change them often: for new are more timorous and less subtile. He that can look into his estate but seldom, it behoveth him to turn all to certainties. A man had need, if he be plentiful in some kind of expence, to be as saving again in some other. As if he be plentiful in diet, to be saving in apparel: if he be plentiful in the hall, to be saving in the stable: and the like. For he that is plentiful in expences of all kinds, will hardly be preserved from decay. In clearing of a man's estate, he may as well hurt himself in being too sudden, as in letting it run on too long: for hasty selling is commonly as disadvantageable as interest. Besides, he that clears at once will relapse; for finding himself out of straits, he will revert to his customs; but he that cleareth by degrees induceth a habit of fru gality, and gaineth as well upon his mind as upon his

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estate. Certainly, who hath a state to repair, may not despise small things: and commonly it is less dishonourable to abridge petty charges, than to stoop to petty gettings. A man ought warily to begin charges, which once begun will continue; but in matters that return not, he may be more magnificent.

XXIX. OF THE TRUE GREATNESS OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES.

THE speech of Themistocles the Athenian, which was haughty and arrogant in taking so much to himself, had been a grave and wise observation and censure, applied at large to others. Desired at a feast to touch a lute, he said, He could not fiddle, but yet he could make a small town a great city. These words, holpen a little with a metaphor, may express two differing abilities in those that deal in business of estate. For if a true survey be taken of counsellors and statesmen, there may be found, though rarely, those which can make a small state great, and yet cannot fiddle; as on the other side, there will be found a great many that can fiddle very cunningly, but yet are so far from being able to make a small state great, as their gift lieth the other way; to bring a great and flourishing estate to ruin and decay. And certainly those degenerate arts and shifts, whereby many counsellors and governors gain both favour with their masters, and estimation with the vulgar, deserve no better name than fiddling; being things rather pleasing for the time, and graceful to themselves only, than tending to the weal and advancement of the state which they serve. There are also, no doubt, counsellors and governors which may be held sufficient, negotiis pares, able to manage affairs, and to keep them from precipices and manifest inconveniencies, which nevertheless are far from the ability to raise and amplify an estate, in power, means, and fortune. But be the workmen what they may be, let us speak of the work; that is, the true greatness of kingdoms and estates, and the means thereof. An argument fit for great and mighty princes

to have in their hand; to the end that neither by over-measuring their forces they lose themselves in vain enterprises; nor on the other side, by undervaluing them, they descend to fearful and pusillanimous counsels.

The greatness of an estate in bulk and territory doth fall under measure, and the greatness of finances and revenue doth fall under computation. The population may appear by musters; and the number and greatness of cities and towns by cards and maps. But yet there is not any thing amongst civil affairs more subject to error, than the right valuation and true judgment concerning the power and forces of an estate. The kingdom of heaven is compared, not to any great kernel or nut, but to a grain of mustardseed; which is one of the least grains, but hath in it a property and spirit hastily to get up and spread. So are there states, great in territory, and yet not apt to enlarge or command; and some that have but a small dimension of stem, and yet apt to be the foundations of great monarchies.

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Walled towns, stored arsenals and armouries, goodly races of horse, chariots of war, elephants, ordnance, artillery, and the like: all this is but a sheep in a lion's skin, except the breed and disposition of the people be stout and warlike. Nay, number itself, in armies, importeth not much, where the people is of weak courage; for, as Virgil saith, it never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be. army of the Persians, in the plains of Arbela, was such a vast sea of people, as it did somewhat astonish the commanders in Alexander's army; who came to him therefore, and wished him to set upon them by night; but he answered, he would not pilfer the victory: and the defeat was easy. When Tigranes the Armenian, being encamped upon a hill with four hundred thousand men, discovered the army of the Romans, being not above fourteen thousand, marching towards him; he made himself merry with it, and said, "Yonder men are too many for an em"bassage, and too few for a fight." But before the

sun set, he found them enow to give him the chace, with infinite slaughter. Many are the examples of the great odds between number and courage: so that a man may truly make a judgment, that the principal point of greatness in any state is to have a race of military men. Neither is money the sinews of war, as it is trivially said, where the sinews of mens arms, in base and effeminate people, are failing. For Solon said well to Croesus, when in ostentation he shewed him his gold," Sir, if any other come that hath better "iron than you, he will be master of all this gold." Therefore let any prince or state think soberly of his forces, except his militia of natives be of good and valiant soldiers. And let princes, on the other side, that have subjects of martial disposition, know their own strength, unless they be otherwise wanting unto themselves. As for mercenary forces, which is the help in this case, all examples shew, that whatsoever estate or prince doth rest upon them, he may spread his feathers for a time, but he will mew them soon after.

The blessing of Judah and Issachar will never meet; that the same people or nation should be both the lion's whelp, and the ass between burdens. Neither will it be, that a people over-laid with taxes should ever become valiant and martial. It is true, that taxes levied by consent of the estate, do abate mens courage less; as it hath been seen notably in the excises of the Low Countries; and, in some degree, in the subsidies of England. For you must note, that we speak now of the heart, and not of the purse. So that although the same tribute and tax, 'laid by consent, or by imposing, be all one to the purse, yet it works diversly upon the courage. So that you may conclude, that no people over-charged with tribute is fit for empire.

Let states that aim at greatness, take heed how their nobility and gentlemen do multiply too fast; for that maketh the common subject grow to be a peasant and base swain, driven out of heart, and in effect but the gentleman's labourer. Even as you

may see in coppice woods; if you leave your staddles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs and bushes. So in countries, if the gentlemen be too many, the commons will be base; and you will bring it to that, that not the hundred poll will be fit for an helmet; especially as to the infantry, which is the nerve of an army: and so there will be great population, and little strength. This which I speak of, hath been no where better seen, than by comparing of England and France; whereof England, though far less in territory and population, hath been, nevertheless, an overmatch; in regard the middle people of England make good soldiers, which the peasants of France do not. And herein the device of king Henry the seventh, whereof I have spoken largely in the history of his life, was profound and admirable: in making farms, and houses of husbandry, of a standard; that is, maintained with such a proportion of land unto them, as may breed a subject to live in convenient plenty, and no servile condition; and to keep the plough in the hands of the owners, and not mere hirelings. And thus indeed you shall attain to Virgil's character, which he gives to ancient Italy :

Terra potens armis, atque ubere gleba. Neither is that state, which, for any thing I know, is almost peculiar to England, and hardly to be found any where else, except it be perhaps in Poland, to be passed over; I mean the state of free servants, and attendants upon noblemen and gentlemen, which are no ways inferior unto the yeomanry for arms: and therefore out of all question, the splendour and magnificence, and great retinues, and hospitality of noblemen and gentlemen, received into custom, doth much conduce unto martial greatness: whereas, contrariwise, the close and reserved living of noblemen and gentlemen causeth a penury of military forces.

By all means it is to be procured, that the trunk of Nebuchadnezzar's tree of monarchy be great enough to bear the branches and the boughs; that is, that the natural subjects of the crown or state bear a sufficient proportion to the stranger subjects that they govern.

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