Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century

“Now let us suppose that the King of Sweden should think it more honourable to make a peace with the Czar, and to carry the force of his resentment against his less generous enemies, what a stand will then the princes of the empire, even those that unadvisedly drew in 40,000 Muscovites, to secure the tranquillity of that empire against 10,000 or 12,000 Swedes, I say what stand will they be able to make against him while the Emperor is already engaged in war with the Turks; and the Poles, when they are once in peace among themselves (if after the miseries of so long a war they are in a condition to undertake anything),are by treaty obliged to join their aids against that common enemy of Christianity.

“Some will say I make great and sudden rises from very small beginnings. My answer is, that I would have such an objector look back and reflect why I show him, from such a speck of entity, at his first origin, growing, through more improbable and almost insuperable difficulties, to such a bulk as he has already attained to, and whereby, as his advocates, the Dutch themselves own, he is grown too formidable for the repose, not only of his neighbours, but of Europe in general.