or indeed rather matter of discontent and repining,
from the quarrels we raise with nature. And I believe, upon a strict
inquiry, those quarrels might be shown as ill-grounded among us as they
are among that people.

As to their military affairs, they boast that the king's army consists of
a hundred and seventy-six thousand foot, and thirty-two thousand horse:
if that may be called an army, which is made up of tradesmen in the
several cities, and farmers in the country, whose commanders are only the
nobility and gentry, without pay or reward. They are indeed perfect
enough in their exercises, and under very good discipline, wherein I saw
no great merit; for how should it be otherwise, where every farmer is
under the command of his own landlord, and every citizen under that of
the principal men in his own city, chosen after the manner of Venice, by
ballot?

I have often seen the militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn out to exercise, in a
great field near the city of twenty miles square. They were in all not
above twenty-five thousand foot, and six thousand horse; but it was
impossible for me to compute their number, considering the space of
ground they took up. A cavalier, mounted on a large steed, might be
about ninety feet high. I have seen this whole body of horse, upon a
word of command, draw their swords at once, and brandish them in the air.
Imagination can figure nothing so grand, so surprising, and so
astonishing! it looked as if ten thousand flashes of lightning were
darting at the same time from every quarter of the sky.

I was curious to know how this prince, to whose dominions there is no
access from any other country, came to think of armies, or to teach his
people the practice of military discipline. But I was soon informed,
both by conversation and reading their histories; for, in the course of
many ages, they have been troubled with the same disease to which the
whole race of mankind is subject; the nobility often contending for
power, the people for liberty, and the king for absolute dominion. All
which, however happily tempered by the laws of that kingdom, have been
sometimes violated by each of the three parties, and have more than once
occasioned civil wars; the last whereof was happily put an end to by this
prince's grand-father, in a general composition; and the militia, then
settled with common consent, has been ever since kept in the strictest
duty.

CHAPTER VIII.

The king and queen mak