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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: their own pockets. Finally, he was obliged to repudiate all his
debts; and when he died the Spanish empire was in such a beggarly
condition that it quaked at every approach of a hostile Dutch
fleet. Such a result is not evidence of a statesmanlike ability;
but Philip's fanatical selfishness was incompatible with
statesmanship. He never could be made to believe that his
projects had suffered defeat. No sooner had the Invincible Armada
been sent to the bottom by the guns of the English fleet and the
gales of the German Ocean, than he sent orders to Farnese to
invade England at once with the land force under his command! He
thought to obtain Scotland, when, after the death of Mary, it had
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
