Category: Ireland

Tuesday, June 13. 1704.

Numb. 29.
[129]

THe Frontiers of France, which now remain to finish the Circle drawn round the whole Monarchy, respect only the Coats, since the Borders on the Spanish side, Fortified by the Pyrenees, are more the Work of Nature than of Art.

’Tis true, there are some strong tho’ small Towns, on the Edge of Rousillon, and the Borders of Catalonia; but the French having always been Agressors there, and frequently pierced Catalonia, even to the subduing the whole Province two or three times; as they have the more neglected their Frontiers, so the restoring the Memory of Leucates.

Other such Places on the Passes of the Frontiers here, would serve very little to the Instruction of the Reader, which is the main End of this, and all profitable History.

It is easy to look back in History, to a time when all France was full of Fortified Places, and every great Town was also a strong Town; and when we come back to the History of the Wars with the Hugonots, and to the Famous Sieges of those Times, the Relation will of Course, be a Description of those Places of Strength. Continue reading Tuesday, June 13. 1704.

Saturday, March 11. 1704.

Numb. 4.
[25]

’TIS strange that we cannot bear to hear the Truth, if the Fact it self does not please us; That we should be willing rather to feel than hear of the Greatness of our Enemies.

Methinks having the true Picture of our Adversary should be useful to instruct us in our needful Preparations. The French are generally full of Boasts and Rhodomontades, to make the World believe them greater than they are; our People full of Banter and Lampoon, to make them seem less than they are.

Those are two Cheats equally hurtful to us; the First to Terrifie us; the Last to make us too Easie, and consequently too Secure: ’Tis equally Dangerous for us to be terrified into Despair, and Bully’d into more Terror of our Enemies than we need, or to be so Exalted in Conceit of [26] our own Force, as to Undervalue and Contemn the Power which we cannot Reduce.

’Tis an allow’d Maxim in War, Never to Contemn the meanest Adversary; and it must pass with me for a Maxim in Politicks, Not to Contemn the Power that is so far from Mean, that ’tis a Match for half the World. Continue reading Saturday, March 11. 1704.