greater terror of the inhabitants, by how much the less they had expected his arrival. What shall we say of those mountains, which lock up whole regions in such sort, as they leave but one gate open? The straits, or (as they were called) the gates of Taurus in Cilicia, and those of Thermopyla, have seldom been attempted, perhaps because they were thought impregnable; but how seldom (if ever) have they been attempted in vain. Xerxes, and long after him the Romans, forced the entrance of Thermopyla; Cyrus the younger, and after him Alexander, found the gates of Cilicia wide open; how strongly soever they had been locked and barred, yet were those countries open enough to a fleet that should enter on the back side. The defence of rivers, how hard a thing it is, we find examples in all histories that bear good witness. The deepest have many fords, the swiftest and broadest may be passed by boats, in case it be found a matter of difficulty to make a bridge. He that hath men enough to defend all the length of his own bank hath also enough to beat his enemy; and may therefore do better to let him come over, to his loss, than by striving in vain to hinder the passage, as a matter tending to his own disadvantage, fill the heads of his soldiers with an opinion that they are in ill case, having their means of safeguard taken from them by the skill or valour of such as are too good for them. Certainly if a river were sufficient defence against an army, the isle of Mona, now called Anglesea, which is divided from North Wales by an arm of the sea, had been safe enough against the Romans invading it under conduct of Julius Agricola. But he wanting, and not meaning to spend the time in making vessels to transport his forces, did assay the fords. Whereby he so amazed the enemies attending for ships and such like provision by sea, that surely believing nothing could be hard or invincible to men which came so minded to war, they humbly entreated for peace, and yielded the island. Yet the Britains were men stout enough, the Persians very dastards. It was therefore wisely done of Alexander to pass the river of Granick in face of the enemy, not marching higher to seek an easier way, nor labouring to convey his men over it by some safer means. For having beaten them upon their own ground, he did thereby cut off no less of their reputation than of their strength, leaving no hope of succour to the partakers and followers of such unable protectors.-The History of the World. 5. Great Commanders. CERTAINLY the things performed by Xenophon discover as brave a spirit as Alexander's, and working no less exquisitely, though the effects were less material, as were also the forces and power of command by which it wrought. But he that would find the exact pattern of a noble commander must look upon such as Epaminondas, that encountering worthy captains, and those better followed than themselves, have by their singular virtue overtopped their valiant enemies, and still prevailed over those that would not have yielded one foot to any other such as these are do seldom live to obtain great empires. For it is a work of more labour and longer time, to master the equal forces of one hardy and well-ordered state, than to tread down and utterly subdue a multitude of servile nations, compounding the body of a gross unwieldy empire. Wherefore these parvo potentes, men that with little have done much upon enemies of like ability, are to be regarded as choice examples of worth; but great conquerors, to be rather admired for the substance of their actions, than the exquisite managing; exactness and great : ness concurring so seldom, that I can find no instance of both in one, save only that brave Roman Cæsar.-The History of the World. 6. Sea Fights. CERTAINLY, he that will happily perform a fight at sea, must be skilful in making choice of vessels to fight in; he must believe, that there is more belonging to a good man of war upon the waters, than great daring; and must know, that there is a great deal of difference between fighting loose, or at large, and grappling. The guns of a slow ship pierce as well, and make as great holes, as those in a swift. To clap ships together without consideration, belongs rather to a madman than to a man of war; for by such an ignorant bravery was Peter Strossie lost at the Azores, when he fought against the marquis of Santa Cruz. In like sort had the lord Charles Howard, admiral of England, been lost in the year 1588, if he had not been better advised, than a great many malignant fools were that found fault with his demeanour. The Spaniards had an army aboard them, and he had none; they had more ships than he had, and of higher building and charging; so that, had he entangled himself with those great and powerful vessels, he had greatly endangered this kingdom of England. For twenty men upon the defences are equal to an hundred that board and enter; whereas then, contrariwise, the Spaniards had an hundred for twenty of ours, to defend themselves withal. But our admiral knew his advantage, and held it; which had he not done, he had not been worthy to have held his head. Here to speak in general of sea-fight, (for particulars are fitter for private hands than for the press,) I say, that a fleet of twenty ships, all good sailers and good ships, have the advantage, on the open sea, of an hundred as good ships and of slower sailing. For if the fleet of an hundred sail keep themselves near together, in a gross squadron, the twenty ships, charging them upon any angle, shall force them to give ground, and to fall back upon their next fellows, of which so many as entangle are made unserviceable, or lost. Force them they may easily, because the twenty ships, which give themselves scope, after they have given one broadside of artillery, by clapping into the wind, and staying, they may give them the other, and so the twenty ships batter them in pieces with a perpetual volley; whereas those that fight in a troop have no room to turn, and can always use but one and the same beaten side. If the fleet of an hundred sail give themselves any distance, then shall the lesser fleet prevail, either against those that are a-rear and hindmost, or against those that by advantage of over-sailing their fellows keep the wind; and if upon a lee-shore the ships next the wind be constrained to fall back into their own squadron, then it is all to nothing that the whole fleet must suffer shipwreck, or render itself. That such advantage may be taken upon a fleet of unequal speed, it hath been well enough conceived in old time, as by that oration of Hermocrates, in Thucydides, which he made to the Syracusians when the Athenians invaded them, it may easily be observed.-The History of the World. III. RICHARD HOOKER. CIRCA 1553-1600. RICHARD HOOKER was born at Heavitree, near Exeter, about 1553. His parents not being rich intended him for a trade, but his schoolmaster at Exeter, recognizing his natural endowments, prevailed with them to continue him at school, assuring them that his talents and learning were so remarkable, that they would soon attract the notice of some patron, who would free them from further care and charge about him. The promise of his boyhood induced his uncle, who was known to Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, to commend him to that prelate, and under his protection Hooker was sent to the University of Oxford, and admitted as a clerk of Corpus Christi College in the year 1567. In 1573 he was chosen scholar, and in 1577 he was elected fellow of his college, and about two years afterwards he was appointed deputy-professor of Hebrew. During these years Isaak Walton tells us of Hooker's attainments,' that by his great reason and his industry' 'he did not only know more of causes and effects, but what he knew he knew better than other men;''his behaviour in his college was mild, innocent and exemplary, and thus this good man continued till his death, still increasing in learning, in patience and in piety.' We hear of his intimacy at Oxford with Edwin Sandys, George Cranmer, and Henry Savile, all men of mark and influence in their day. In 1581 Hooker took orders, and in the same year he first preached in London at St. Paul's. Soon after he married, and took the living of Drayton Beauchamp, in Bucks. The |