1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 51 



is to have particular care that nothing falls from his mouth but 

 what is full of the five qualities aforesaid, and that to see and to 

 hear him he appears all goodness, integrity, humanity, and religion, 

 which last he ought to pretend to more than ordinarily, because 

 more men do judge by the eye than by the touch; for everybody 

 sees, but few understand; everybody sees how you appear, but few 

 know what in reality you are. * * * Lg^ a prince, therefore, 

 do what he can to preserve his life, and continue his supremacy, 

 the means which he uses shall be thought honourable, and be com- 

 mended by everybody. * * * There is a prince at this time 

 in being (but his name I shall conceal) who has nothing in his 

 mouth but fidelity and peace; and yet had he exercised either 

 the one or the other, they had robbed him before this both of his 

 power and reputation." 



Probably you now agree that no human name could better 

 fit the Father of Lies than that of Nicola; that Machiavelli must 

 at all events be regarded as the champion amongst the mundanes; 

 and that possibly he may be able fairly to hold his own in the 

 realms below, where he no doubt at present sojourns. 



Not too Fast. — It may be, however, that we are going a 

 little too fast. Let us investigate a little further. Let us try to 

 understand the conditions which surrounded young Nick (as we 

 may call him) and the objects which he had in view. Above all 

 let us know something more of the man himself and try to estimate 

 him, not by reading the 18th chapter alone but by his environment 

 and his general character. 



A. D. 1500. — The Middle Ages are over. They did not close 

 precisely with the celerity of a rat-trap, but if you want a date put 

 it at 1453 when the Mohammedans took Constantinople and 

 ended the Eastern Roman Empire. 



Every period is rightly said to be one of transition, but to no 

 century in history can the word be more properly applied than to 

 the one just past by. 



In the first place it is the period of transition from feudalism 

 to nationalism; from the baron to the King. And not without 

 much fighting and fraud, violence and intrigue, is the castle at 

 last to be dominated by the crown. 



It is the period in which the preponderating influence of the 

 Holy Roman Empire, and of the Holy Roman Church, are very 

 clearly declining — in which the heretofore dominating idea of 

 unity (as there is but one God, so there must be but one sovereign 



