e 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 glebae.

Neither is that state (which, for any thing I know, is almost peculiar
to England, and hardly to be found anywhere 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 questions, the splendor
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. Therefore all states that are liberal of naturalization towards
strangers, are fit for empire. For to think that an handful of people
can, with the greatest courage and policy in the world, embrace too
large extent of dominion, it may hold for a time, but it will fail
suddenly. The Spartans were a nice people in point of naturalization;
whereby, while they kept their compass, they stood firm; but when they
did spread, and their boughs were becomen too great for their stem, they
became a windfall, upon the sudden. Never any state was in this point so
open to receive strangers into their body, as were the Romans. Therefore
it sorted with them accordingly; for they grew to the greatest monarchy.
Their manner was to grant naturalization (which they called jus
civitatis), and to grant it in the highest degree; that is, not only jus
commercii, jus connubii, jus haereditatis; but also jus suffragii, and
jus honorum. And this not to singular persons alone, but likewise to
whole families; yea to citi