1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 59 



"The influence of Machiavelli upon the history of political 

 theories can hardly be exaggerated " (c^) • 



"In the widespread and immediate influence which they 

 exercised, probably no political writings have ever equalled those 

 of Machiavelli " (e) . 



The originality of Machiavelli is very apparent: — • 



" In the first place it is necessary to recognize in his philosophy 

 the formal and conscious separation of politics as a science, from 

 the science of ethics " (/) . 



"He is in the fullest sense a student of practical politics, and 

 he seeks to determine the workings of a real, not an ideal, political 

 life. Imaginary and impossible states have for him no interest 

 whatever. His purpose is to 'get back to the actual truth of 

 things.' There is, he says, the greatest difference between the 

 way in which men live, and that in which they ought to live; and 

 the former, not the latter, is deliberately chosen as the subject of 

 his investigations " (a). 



"Machiavelli shewed how the history of a people can be 

 written with a recognition of fixed principles, and at the same 

 time with an artistic feeling for persons and dramatic episodes. 

 On the other side he addressed himself to the analysis of man con- 

 sidered as a political being, to the anatomy of constitutions, and 

 the classification of governments, to the study of motives including 

 public action, the secrets of success, and the causes of failure 

 * * * By which he added a department to the intellectual 

 empire of mankind " (6) . 



"Machiavelli is, in truth, a giant among political thinkers, 

 the greatest that had appeared since Aristotle * * * jj^^ |-^is 

 method of treating political problems, he is a new man in political 

 philosophy. He appeals to history, not to revelation, for an 

 answer to these* problems. He divorces politics from theology, 

 and follows reason instructed by history as his guide " * * To 

 him, history is what natural phenomena are to the man of science ; 

 and he studies, weighs his facts apart altogether from any pre- 

 conceived theological theory. It is this application of reason to 

 history, untrammelled by traditional beliefs, that makes him a 

 new man, a revolutionist in political thought" (x). 



(d) Dunning, p. 322. 



(e) Macnainara: 19th Cent., Vol. 40, p. 907. 

 (/) Dunning, p. 297. 



(a) Dunning, p. 302. 



(b) Ency. Br. tit. "Renaissance." 



(x) Mackinnon: Hist, of Modern Liberty. 



