them of xvii. yeres: for as much as the other of more age be alredy
chosen and apoincted.

COSIMO. Then woulde you prepare a power like to those whiche is in our
countrie?

FABRICIO. Ye truly, it is so that I would arme them, Captaine them,
exercise and order them in a maner, whiche I cannot tell, if you have
ordred them so.

COSIMO. Then do you praise the keping of order?

FABRICIO. Wherefore would you that I should dispraise it?

COSIMO. Bicause many wise menne have alwaies blamed it.

FABRICIO. You speake against all reason, to saie that a wise man blameth
order, he maie bee well thought wise, and be nothyng so.

COSIMO. The naughtie profe, which it hath alwaies, maketh us to have
soche opinion thereof.

FABRICIO. Take hede it be not your fault, and not the kepyng of order,
the whiche you shall knowe, before this reasonyng be ended.

COSIMO. You shall doe a thyng moste thankfull, yet I will saie
concernyng thesame, that thei accuse it, to the entente you maie the
better justifie it. Thei saie thus, either it is unprofitable, and we
trustyng on the same, shall make us to lese our state, or it shall be
verteous, and by thesame meane, he that governeth may easely deprive us
thereof. Thei alledge the Romaines, who by meane of their owne powers,
loste their libertie. Thei alledge the Venicians, and the Frenche king,
whiche Venicians, bicause thei will not be constrained, to obeie one of
their owne Citezeins, use the power of straungers: and the Frenche kyng
hath disarmed his people, to be able more easely to commaunde them, but
thei whiche like not the ordinaunces, feare moche more the
unprofitablenesse, that thei suppose maie insue thereby, then any thyng
els: the one cause whiche thei allege is, bicause thei are unexperte:
The other, for that thei have to serve par force: for asmoche as thei
saie, that the aged bee not so dissiplinable, nor apte to learne the
feate of armes, and that by force, is doen never any thyng good.

[Sidenote: By what meanes souldiours bee made bolde and experte.]

FABRICIO. All these reasons that you have rehearsed, be of men, whiche
knoweth the thyng full little, as I shall plainly declare. And firste,
concernyng the unprofitablenesse, I tell you, that there is no service
used in any countrie more profitable, then the service by the Subjectes
of thesame nor thesame service cannot bee prepared, but in this maner:
and for that this nedeth not to be disputed of, I will not lese moche