MACCHIAVELLI. 



599 



obliged to petition the signoria (supreme futhonty 

 of the state) on account of his poverty. His advice 

 was of great use to the commonwealth, at the time 

 of the insurrection of Val di Chiana. The leading 

 principles of his counsels, at this juncture, may be 

 deduced from his numerous letters, preserved in the 

 Florentine archives. They were to maintain a 

 peaceful and friendly spirit in the settlement of diffi- 

 culties, to provide for an upright and strict adminis- 

 tration of justice, to make the burden of taxes as 

 light as possible, and to keep a watchful eye on the 

 smallest circumstances that had relation to public 

 concerns. Even in regard to military affairs, the 

 state was so convinced of the sagacity of his views, 

 that they preferred his counsel to any other. Among 

 other things, a Tuscan legion was established by his 

 advice. This band, at a later period, distinguished 

 itself remarkably under the command of Giovanni 

 de' Medici. When pope Julius II. had succeeded 

 in establishing a league in Italy against the over- 

 whelming power of the French, Louis XII., to re- 

 venge himself, and wound the dignity of the pope in 

 the tenderest point, attempted to assemble a council 

 in Italy, and requested the Florentines to allow Pisa, 

 which had become again subject to them, to be the 

 place of meeting. Macchiavelli feared the papal 

 thunders, and advised his countrymen to evade the 

 proposal. He went with this view as envoy to the 

 king, but the king would not be refused. After his 

 return, he was sent to Pisa, to watch the proceedings 

 of the council, and to labour for its dissolution. 

 Nevertheless, the pope was so indignant against the 

 Florentines, that he formed an alliance with Ferdi- 

 nand of Arragon to deprive them of their freedom, 

 and, by their means, the power of the Medici was 

 re-established. As Macchiavelli had laboured inces- 

 santly for the good of the republic, Lorenzo de' 

 Medici, now dictator of Florence, seized the opportu- 

 nity, in spite of a public decree, to strip him of his 

 dignities. He was afterwards accused of participat- 

 ing in the conspiracy of the Boscoli and Capponi 

 against the cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, imprisoned, 

 put to the torture, and banished ; all which he en- 

 dured with a firmness approaching to indifference. 

 After the cardinal became pope (Leo X.), his pun- 

 ishment was remitted. He returned to his native 

 country, and wrote his discourses on the ten first 

 books of Livy; also his Prince, which he dedicated 

 to Lorenzo de' Medici. Upon this, he was received 

 again into favour by this powerful family; and car- 

 dinal Julius, who ruled Florence in the name of Leo 

 X., and earnestly desired to reform the condition of 

 the place, availed himself of the advice of Macchia- 

 velli, in extinguishing various civil commotions. He 

 was suspected of being concerned in a new conspir- 

 acy against the Medici ; but the only consequence 

 was, that he was obliged to return to private life and 

 to indigence. When Julius, under the name of 

 Clement VII., ascended the papal chair, Macchia- 

 velli was again employed in public business : in par- 

 ticular, he was senf to aid the allied forces of the 

 pope and the Florentines in the defence of Tuscany 

 against the army of Charles V. The confidence 

 now reposed in him by the Medici alienated from 

 him the affections of the Florentines ; and, after his 

 /eturn to Florence, he died, June 22, 1527, neglected 

 and poor. It appears, from the letters of his son 

 Pietro to Francisco Nelli, that he manifested on his 

 death-bed the feelings of a Christian. The account 

 of the inaccurate Paolo Giovio, that he died a suicide 

 and an atheist, is not to be depended on. 



The writings of the immortal Florentine may be 

 arranged under four heads, history, politics, belles 

 lettres, and military treatises. His eight books on 

 the history of Florence, written at the command of 



Clement VII., begin with the year 1215, and end 

 witli Lorenzo de' Medici, in the year 1492. They 

 are among the first historical works of modem times, 

 which deserve to be placed side by side with the 

 beautiful remains of antiquity. Macchiavelli was 

 probably prevented by death from completing this 

 work, and is said to have left his collection of ma- 

 terials to Guicciardini. The history is distinguished 

 for its pure, elegant, and flowing style: its imparti- 

 ality is doubtful. The Life of Castruccio Castracani, 

 lord of Lucca, is more properly a romance than a 

 biography. The hero, who is as great a villain as 

 Caesar Borgia, is continually quoting apophthegms 

 from Plutarch. Under the head of politics are in- 

 cluded his two most important works the Prince (of 

 which more will be said hereafter), and the Dis- 

 courses upon the ten first books of Livy. His pur- 

 pose, in these last, is to show how a republic may be 

 supported, and how it is exposed to ruin. The 

 work breathes, throughout, a warm love of freedom. 

 Filippo Nerli relates, in his commentaries, that Mac- 

 chiavelli was induced to write these discourses, and 

 those on the Art of War, by a number of young men 

 who were accustomed to assemble with him in a 

 garden in Florence, and had been made republicans 

 by the perusal of the ancients. Montesquieu and 

 Rousseau have both drawn freely from these works. 

 ID a treatise, composed in the year 1519, upon a 

 reformation in the state of Florence, he advises the 

 pope Leo X. to restore the republican form of go- 

 vernment to this city, although he pretends to have 

 the aggrandizement of the Medici in view. His 

 object in the seven books on the Art of War was, to 

 show the Italians that they were able to recover their 

 freedom without the assistance of the foreign merce 

 naries, so generally employed in the states of Ital y ; 

 and he shows himself fully sensible of the great 

 importance of infantry, then little valued. Frederic 

 the Great knew and esteemed this treatise. For the 

 restoration of the comic drama, also, the world is 

 indebted to the Florentine secretary. His comedies, 

 La Mandragola and La Clizia, are the first regular 

 dramas written since the time of the Romans. Vol- 

 taire preferred the first to any of the plays of Aristo- 

 phanes. His other poems are full of thought. The 

 novel entitled Belfagor is very fine, and has been 

 versified by La Fontaine. His description of the 

 pestilence, which raged in Florence in the years 

 1522 3, may be compared to the similar account 

 in Thucydides. He has written, also, many other 

 treatises, all of which show the great man, and sev- 

 eral poems. Among his papers is a constitution for 1 

 the regulation of a gay company, called Compagnia 

 di Piacere. 



The Prince lias been often translated. The opin- 

 ions on this work are very various. Some persons 

 condemn it as intended to instruct tyrants in the art 

 of oppression. This idea originated with the arch- 

 bishop of Consa, Ambrosio Catarino, long after the 

 book was given to the world. Bayle, in his famous 

 dictionary, and Frederic the Great, in his Anti-Mac- 

 chiavelli, which was translated, together with the 

 Prince, by the order of Mustapha III., are of the 

 same opinion. But they mistake Macchiavelli's 

 meaning, for his other writings, as well as his life, 

 prove that he loved liberty ardently. Others consider 

 the Prince as a satire ; but this is impossible. The 

 tone of the work is most serious throughout : no trace 

 of satire can be discovered. Others think it a work 

 full of valuable counsel for princes, but infected with 

 a looseness of morals which prevailed in the age ot 

 the writer: but Macchiavelli hated Alexander VI., 

 Cassar Borgia, and all the tyrants of his age; and the 

 full consideration with which he advances his start- 

 ling principles, shows that they could not hive sprun<; 



