e of her situation, by which in great
part it subsists. And such also is the government of the Spaniard in the
Indies, to which he deputes natives of his own country, not admitting
the creoles to the government of those provinces, though descended from
Spaniards.

But if a prince or a commonwealth may hold a territory that is foreign
in this, it may be asked why he may not hold one that is native in
the like manner? To which I answer, because he can hold a foreign by a
native territory, but not a native by a foreign; and as hitherto I
have shown what is not the provincial balance, so by this answer it may
appear what it is, namely, the overbalance of a native territory to
a foreign; for as one country balances itself by the distribution
of property according to the proportion of the same, so one country
overbalances another by advantage of divers kinds. For example, the
Commonwealth of Rome overbalanced her provinces by the vigor of a
more excellent government opposed to a crazier. Or by a more exquisite
militia opposed to one inferior in courage or discipline. The like was
that of the Mamelukes, being a hardy people, to the Egyptians, that were
a soft one. And the balance of situation is in this kind of wonderful
effect; seeing the King of Denmark, being none of the most potent
princes, is able at the Sound to take toll of the greatest; and as
this King, by the advantage of the land, can make the sea tributary, so
Venice, by the advantage of the sea, in whose arms she is impregnable,
can make the land to feed her gulf. For the colonies in the Indies,
they are yet babes that cannot live without sucking the breasts of their
mother cities, but such as I mistake if when they come of age they do
not wean themselves; which causes me to wonder at princes that delight
to be exhausted in that way. And so much for the principles of power,
whether national or provincial, domestic or foreign; being such as are
external, and founded in the goods of fortune.

I come to the principles of authority, which are internal, and founded
upon the goods of the mind. These the legislator that can unite in his
government with those of fortune, comes nearest to the work of God,
whose government consists of heaven and earth; which was said by Plato,
though in different words, as, when princes should be philosophers, or
philosophers princes, the world would be happy. And says Solomon: "There
is an evil which I have seen under the sun, which proce