Now although these vapours (as it hath been
already said) are of as various original as those of the skies, yet
the crop they produce differs both in kind and degree, merely
according to the soil. I will produce two instances to prove and
explain what I am now advancing.
A certain great prince {126a} raised a mighty army, filled his
coffers with infinite treasures, provided an invincible fleet, and
all this without giving the least part of his design to his greatest
ministers or his nearest favourites. Immediately the whole world
was alarmed, the neighbouring crowns in trembling expectation
towards what point the storm would burst, the small politicians
everywhere forming profound conjectures. Some believed he had laid
a scheme for universal monarchy; others, after much insight,
determined the matter to be a project for pulling down the Pope and
setting up the Reformed religion, which had once been his own. Some
again, of a deeper sagacity, sent him into Asia to subdue the Turk
and recover Palestine. In the midst of all these projects and
preparations, a certain state-surgeon {126b}, gathering the nature
of the disease by these symptoms, attempted the cure, at one blow
performed the operation, broke the bag and out flew the vapour; nor
did anything want to render it a complete remedy, only that the
prince unfortunately happened to die in the performance.
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