ssive reigns of valiant
princes, as of Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander, suffice to
conquer the world, this ought to be still easier for a commonwealth,
which has it in its power to choose, not two excellent rulers only, but
an endless number in succession. And in every well ordered commonwealth
provision will be made for a succession of this sort.

CHAPTER XXI.--_That it is a great reproach to a Prince or to a
Commonwealth to be without a national Army_.

Those princes and republics of the present day who lack forces of their
own, whether for attack or defence, should take shame to themselves, and
should be convinced by the example of Tullus, that their deficiency does
not arise from want of men fit for warlike enterprises, but from their
own fault in not knowing how to make their subjects good soldiers. For
after Rome had been at peace for forty years, Tullus, succeeding to
the kingdom, found not a single Roman who had ever been in battle.
Nevertheless when he made up his mind to enter on a war, it never
occurred to him to have recourse to the Samnites, or the Etruscans,
or to any other of the neighbouring nations accustomed to arms, but he
resolved, like the prudent prince he was, to rely on his own countrymen.
And such was his ability that, under his rule, the people very soon
became admirable soldiers. For nothing is more true than that where a
country, having men, lacks soldiers, it results from some fault in its
ruler, and not from any defect in the situation or climate. Of this we
have a very recent instance. Every one knows, how, only the other day,
the King of England invaded the realm of France with an army raised
wholly from among his own people, although from his country having been
at peace for thirty years, he had neither men nor officers who had ever
looked an enemy in the face. Nevertheless, he did not hesitate with such
troops as he had, to attack a kingdom well provided with officers and
excellent soldiers who had been constantly under arms in the Italian
wars. And this was possible through the prudence of the English king and
the wise ordinances of his kingdom, which never in time of peace relaxes
its warlike discipline. So too, in old times, Pelopidas and Epaminondas
the Thebans, after they had freed Thebes from her tyrants, and rescued
her from thraldom to Sparta, finding themselves in a city used to
servitude and surrounded by an effeminate people, scrupled not, so great
was their cour