Of the relative Force of States.
ALL grandeur, force, and power, are relative. Care, therefore, must be taken, that, in endeavouring to increase the real grandeur, the relative be not diminished.
Under the reign of Lewis XIV. France was at its highest pitch of relative grandeur. Germany had not yet produced such powerful princes as have since appeared in that country. Italy was in the same case. England and Scotland were not yet formed into one united kingdom. Arragon was not joined to Castile: the distant branches of the Spanish monarchy were weakened by it, and weakened it in their turn: and Muscovy was as little known in Europe as Crim-Tartary.