Professor StewarVs History of the Progress of Philostphy. 



580 



times, has ever united, in a more re- 

 markable degree, a i;reater variety of the 

 most dissimilar and seemingly the most 

 discordant gifts and att;\inmenis; — a pro- 

 found acquaintance with ail those arts 

 of dissimulation and intrigue, which, in 

 the petty cabinets of Italy, were then 

 universally confounded with political 

 wisdom; — an iinngination familial ised to 

 the cool contemplation of whatever is 



tised by st-atesmen in all ages and cmin« 

 tries; but which (wherever the freedom 

 of the press is icspected) cannot fail, by 

 the insult it offers to the discernii.ent of 

 the multitude, to increase the insecurity 

 of those who have the weakness to em» 

 ploy it. It has been contended, indeed, 

 by some of Machiavel's apologists, that 

 his real object in unfolding and system- 

 atibing the mysteries of Kins'-craft, was 



erfidious or atrocious in the history of to point out indirectly to the governed 



ctmspirators and of tyrants; — combined 

 with a gr<Tphical skill in holding up to 

 laughter the comparatively harmless fol- 

 lies of ordinary life. His dramatic hu- 

 riour has been often compared to that of 

 Moliere; but it resembles it rather in 

 comic force, than in benevolent gaiety, 

 or in chastened morality. Such as it is, 

 liowever, it forms an extraordinary con- 

 trast to that strengih of intellectual cha- 

 racter, v^hich, in one page, reminds us 

 of the deep sense of Tacitus, and, in 

 the next, of the dark and infernal policy 

 of Cffisar Borgia. To all this must be 

 superadded a purity of taste, which has 

 enabled him, as an historian, to rival 

 jhe severe simplicity of the Grecian mas- 

 ters; and a sagacity in combining histo- 

 rical facts, which was afterwards to afford 

 lights to the school of Montesquieu. 



Eminent, however, as the talents of 

 Machiavcl unquestionably were, he can- 

 not be numbered among the benefactors 

 of mankind. In none of his writings 

 does he exhibit any niarks of that lively 

 sympathy with the fortunes of the human 

 race, or of that warm zeal for the inte- 

 rests of truth and justice, without the 

 guidance of wliich the highest mental 

 endowments, wlien applicci to moral or 

 to political researches, are in perpetual 

 danger of mistaking their way. What is 

 Still more remaikable, he seems to have 

 teen altogether blind to the mighty 

 changes in human affairs, which, in con- 

 sequence of the recent invention of 

 printing, were about to result from Uje 



Sirogress of Reason and the diffusion of 

 knowledge. Through the whole of his 

 " Prince" (the most noted as well as one 

 of the latest of his publications), he 

 proceeds on the supposition that the so- 

 vereign has no other otject in governing 

 tut his own advantage; the very circum- 

 stance which, in the judgment of Aris- 

 totle, constitutes the essence of the worst 

 species of tyranny. He hssumes also 

 the possibility of retaining mankind in 



the means by which the encroachments 

 of their rulers might be most effectually 

 resisteti; and, at the same time, to sati- 

 rise, under the ironical mask of loyal and 

 courtly admonition, the characteristical 

 vices of princes. But, although this hy- 

 pothesis has been sanctioned by several 

 distinguished names, and derives some 

 verisimilitude from various incidents in 

 the author's life, it will be found, on 

 examination, quite untenable, and ac- 

 cordingly it is now, 1 believe, very gent* 

 rally rejected. One thing is certain, 

 that, if such were actually Machia- 

 vel's views, tliey were much too refined 

 for the capacity of his royal pupils. By 

 many uf these his book has been adopted 

 as u manual for daily use ; but I have 

 never heard of a single instance in which 

 it lias been regarded by this class of stu- 

 dents as a disguised panegyric upon li- 

 berty and virtue. The question concern- 

 ing the motires of the author is surely of 

 little moment, when experience has en- 

 abled us to pronounce so decidedly on 

 the practical effixls of his precepts. 



LoHD SACON. 



The merits of Bacon, as the father of 

 Experimental Philosopliy, are so univer-. 

 sally acknowledged, that it would be 

 suueifluous to touch upon them here. 

 The lights which he has struck out in the 

 various branches of the Philosophy of 

 Mind, have been much less attended to; 

 although the whole scope and tenor of 

 his speculniioiis shew that to this study 

 his genius was far more strongly and 

 happily turned, than to that of the Ma- 

 terial \Votki. It was not, as some seem 

 to have imaiiined, by sagacious anticipa- 

 tions of particular discovories afterward* 

 to be made in physics, that his writings 

 have hr.d so powerful en infiuence in ac- 

 celerating lh2 advancement of that sci- 

 ence. In the extent and accuracy of 

 his physical knowledge, he was far infe- 

 rior to many of his predecessors; but he 

 surpassed them all in his knowledge of 

 perpetual boiulage by the old policy of the laws, the resources, and the limits of 



the double doctrine ; or, in other words, 

 ty enlightening the few and hoodwinking 

 the mai'j' ;— a policy less or more prac- 



the human understanding. The sanguine 

 expectations with which he looked for- 

 wards to tlie future, were founded solely 



ou 



