In so far as the latter were made in the Netherlands,
they were to the immediate advantage of the United Provinces, and
indeed of all Europe as well as of Spain. To the two sea nations the
terms of the treaty gave commercial benefits, which tended to the
increase of their own sea power and to the consequent injury of that
of France.

France had made a gigantic struggle; to stand alone as she did then,
and as she has since done more than once, against all Europe is a
great feat. Yet it may be said that as the United Provinces taught the
lesson that a nation, however active and enterprising, cannot rest
upon external resources alone, if intrinsically weak in numbers and
territory, so France in its measure shows that a nation cannot
subsist indefinitely off itself, however powerful in numbers and
strong in internal resources.

It is said that a friend once found Colbert looking dreamily from his
windows, and on questioning him as to the subject of his meditations,
received this reply: "In contemplating the fertile fields before my
eyes, I recall those which I have seen elsewhere; what a rich country
is France!" This conviction supported him amid the many
discouragements of his official life, when struggling to meet the
financial difficulties arising from the extravagance and wars of the
king; and it has been justified by the whole course of the nation's
history since his days. France is rich in natural resources as well as
in the industry and thrift of her people. But neither individual
nations nor men can thrive when severed from natural intercourse with
their kind; whatever the native vigor of constitution, it requires
healthful surroundings, and freedom to draw to itself from near and
from far all that is conducive to its growth and strength and general
welfare. Not only must the internal organism work satisfactorily, the
processes of decay and renewal, of movement and circulation, go on
easily, but, from sources external to themselves, both mind and body
must receive healthful and varied nourishment. With all her natural
gifts France wasted away because of the want of that lively
intercourse between the different parts of her own body and constant
exchange with other people, which is known as commerce, internal or
external. To say that war was the cause of these defects is to state
at least a partial truth; but it does not exhaust the matter. War,
with its many acknowledged sufferings, is above all harmful when it