Page 118 - UTOPIA

great revenues in lands, that lie among other nations that
are their friends, where they may go and enjoy them very
securely; and they observe the promises they make of their
kind most religiously. They very much approve of this way
of corrupting their enemies, though it appears to others to
be base and cruel; but they look on it as a wise course, to
make an end of what would be otherwise a long war, with-
out so much as hazarding one battle to decide it. They think
it likewise an act of mercy and love to mankind to prevent
the great slaughter of those that must otherwise be killed in
the progress of the war, both on their own side and on that
of their enemies, by the death of a few that are most guilty;
and that in so doing they are kind even to their enemies,
and pity them no less than their own people, as knowing
that the greater part of them do not engage in the war of
their own accord, but are driven into it by the passions of
their prince.
‘If this method does not succeed with them, then they
sow seeds of contention among their enemies, and animate
the prince’s brother, or some of the nobility, to aspire to the
crown. If they cannot disunite them by domestic broils, then
they engage their neighbours against them, and make them
set on foot some old pretensions, which are never wanting
to princes when they have occasion for them. These they
plentifully supply with money, though but very sparingly
with any auxiliary troops; for they are so tender of their
own people that they would not willingly exchange one of
them, even with the prince of their enemies’ country.
‘But as they keep their gold and silver only for such an

118 Utopia