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| | BELLUM - Alfred Thayer Mahan - THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON HISTORY, 1660-1783 |
 | | Open to attack by the land, few in numbers, and with a government ill adapted to put forth the united strength of a people, above all unfitted to keep up adequate preparation for war, the decline of the republic and the nation was to be more striking and rapid than the rise. |
 | | The greatness of France was his object, and he had the choice of advancing it by either of two roads,--by the land or by the sea; not that the one wholly forbade the other, but that France, overwhelmingly strong as she then was, had not power to move with equal steps on both paths. |
 | | In the midst of the confused melees of 1652 the fire-ship "acted, so to speak, alone, seeking by chance an enemy to grapple, running the risk of a mistake, without protection against the guns of the enemy, nearly sure to be sunk by him or else burned uselessly. |
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