41 
MAC 
regarded as (he manual of a tyrants all its wfjthws and 
conjifels being direfted to the maintenance of power, bow- 
ever acquired, and by any means. It was dedicated to a 
iKphew of pope Leo X* was printed Romp, rcpubliflipd 
jn other Italian cities, and was long read with attention, 
and even applaufe, without c ep Aire or reply. The prac¬ 
tice of politicians at that time wag lb much in unilbn with 
its maxims, that neither furprife nor deteftation feerns to 
have been excited by an open expofure of the ufual arts 
of government. The writer's intention in this work has 
been a matter of much controvert;/ 5 feme have held him 
up as an abandoned promoter or tyranny, and others have 
maintained that he was its concealed but decided enemy, 
who meant to put the people on their guard againft its 
machinations. A modern critic, however, thinks it pro¬ 
bable, from the character of the man, that he wrote it 
without any moral purpofc whatever; and merely, like a 
mathematician demonftrating a problem, inveftigated the 
principles by which ufurped power might be maintained, 
leaving the application to princeg or fubjefte, as chance 
(liquid direft. It has, nevertheiefs, affixed to his name a 
Jafting ftigma 5 and Machiavelifm is become a received ap¬ 
pellation for perfidious and infamous politics. When 
once the fyftem was expofed, a multitude of opponents to 
it (farted up, in almoft every enlightened country on the 
globe; among whom, and one of the latch, was Frederic 
the Great, king of Pruffia, before he commenced thofe 
plans of aggrandisement that he purfued very much in 
the fpirit of'the work which he had ably anfwered, Of 
the b.iftorical writings.of Machiavel, the Life of Caftrucio 
Caftracani is eonfidcred as partaking too much of the eba- 
rafter of a romance; but his Kiftory of FJorence, com- 
prifing the events of that republic between the years tao| 
ftud 1494, is a very valuable performance, and one of the 
earlielt of the good Italian hiftories. It wag written while 
the author fultained the office of hiftoriographer of the 
republic. His verfes do not rank among the firft or even 
the fecond rate produftion* of Italian poetry j and his co¬ 
medies, however they might appear in public reprefenta- 
tion, are not formed on the pureft models. The works 
of this writer were collefted in a vols. 410. in *550, and 
have been republiffied in Amsterdam, London, and Paris, 
Gen. Biog, 
M A C HIA V E L'f A N, adj, [from Machiavel.] Suited 
to the politics of Machiavel; fubtle, crafty, 
MACHIAVELLIANISM, or MachFaveeism,./! The 
doctrine of Machiavel; the principle that hicks at nothing 
to ar.fwer the purpofes of government. 
To MACHI'AVELIEE, v.n. To practife the politics 
of Machiavel. 
MACHI'AVELIZING, /. Praftifing the politics of 
Machiavel. 
MACHI 4 ,WA'RA,a town of Hindooftan, in the drear 
of Sirhind s twenty-eight miles north of Sirbind. 
MACHICO'RA, a river of Madagafcar, which gives 
name to a province, and runs into the fea, on the iouth 
coaft, in lat. *e. 3. S. Ion.4,1. xa, E. 
MA'CHID. See Meschib, 
MACHIGAS'TA, a town of South America, in the 
province of Tucuman s fifty miles weft-fouth-weft of St. 
Fernand. 
MACH'INAL, adj. [from machina, Lat.] Relating to 
machines, 
To MACHINATE, v. a. [mackiner, Fr.’J To plan 5 to 
contrive, 
MACHINA'TION,/. [mac/iinatio, Lat.] Artifice; con¬ 
trivance ; malicious fcheme.—How were they zealous in 
refpeft to their temporal governors ? Not by open rebel¬ 
lion, not by private machinations ; but in bleffing and fub- 
mitting to their emperors, and obeying them in all things 
but their idolatry. Spratt, 
If you mifearry, 
Your bufinefs of the world hath fo an end, 
And machination ceafes. Shahcfpcan's King Lear . 
^GL. XIV. No. 955, 
M A O 
Be fruflrate all ye- ftratagems of hell, 
And deviliih machinations come to nought. Milton, 
MACHINATOR,/. A contriver; a ftuemer, 
MACHI'NE, f [Fr. from machina , Lat. This word is 
pronounced majhecn.\ Any complicated work in which 
one part contributes to the motion of another.—-We arc 
led to conceive this great machine of the world to have 
been oqce in a (late .of greater fimpiieity, as to conceive 
a watch to have been once in its firll materials. Burnet. 
In a watch's fine machine. 
The added movements which declare. 
How full the moon, how old the year. 
Derive their i'econdary pow'r 
From that which (imply points the hour. frier. 
An engine! 
In the hollow fide, 
Sekfted numbers of their foldiers hide; 
With inward arms the dire machine they load, 
And iron bowels fluff the dark abode. Dryaas. 
Supernatural agency, in poems.—The marvellous fable in¬ 
cludes whatever is fupernatural, and efpecially the ma¬ 
chines of the gods. Pope.-^-A Itage-coach. 
Machine, in general, fignifies any thing that ferves to 
augment or to regulate moving powers: or it is any body 
deitined to produce motion, fo as to fave either time or 
force. The denomination machine is now yulgarly given 
to a great variety of iubjedts that have very little analogy 
by which they can be claffed with propriety under one 
name s we fay a travelling machine, a bathing machine, 
a copying machine, a threfhing machine, an electrical ma¬ 
chine, Ike. Sec. The only circumftar.ee in which all thefe 
agree, feem to be, that their conftruftion is more complex 
and artificial than the utenfils, tools, or inftruments, which 
offer themfelves to the firft thoughts of uncultivated peo- 
E le 3 they are more artificial than the common cart, the 
atbifig-tub, the flail, or the glafs tube which firft difeo- 
vered the phenomena of eleftricity. In the language of 
ancient Athens and Rome, the term was applied to every 
tool by which hard labour of any kind was performed; 
but, in the language of modern Europe, it feems reftridted 
either to fucb tools or inftruments as are employed for 
executing fome philofophical purpofe, or of which the 
conftruftion employs the fimple mechanical powers in a 
confpicuous manner, fo that their operation and energy 
engage the attention. It is nearly fynonymous, in our 
language, with engine ; a term altogether modern, and in' 
fome meafure honourable, being beltowed only, or chiefly, 
on contrivances for executing work in which ingenuity 
?,nd mechanical fkill are manifeft. 
Machines are either fimple or compound. The fimple 
ones are the feven mechanical powers, viz. lever, balance, 
pulley, axis and wheel, wedge, ferew, and inclined plane. 
From thefe the compound ones are formed by various 
combinations, and lerve for different purpofes. See Hus¬ 
bandry, Mechanics, Weaving, &c. 
Machines ufed in war amongft the Greeks were princi¬ 
pally thefe 5 t, K,Ai^«K8s, or fcaling-ladders. The bat¬ 
tering ram. 3. The helepolis. 4. The ^eAwnj, or tortoife, 
called by the Romans tejluda. 5. The a-^co^a, or agger, 
which was faced with ftone, and raifed higher than the 
wall. 6. Upon the fchorna were built wv^ya*, or towers of 
wood, 9. or ofier hurdles, 8. Catapulted, or 
mrfeth from which they threw arrows with amazing force. 
9. The Ai$o£«A<3i, srsTgaSoAoi, or e^sbj^as, from which ftones 
were call with great velocity. The principal warlike ma¬ 
chines made ule of by the Romans were—the ram 5 the 
lupus, or wolf; the tejluda, or tortoife ; the baiijla, the cata- 
pulta ,, and the fcorpion. 
Of the architectural machines of the ancients we are 
totally unacquainted, and one is at a lofs to conceive 
what means they employed for tranfporting and raifing 
thofe enormous ftones which are found in the walls of 
fome ancient buildings, though it is not unlikely that 
they owed as much to their patient perfeyerence and tna- 
M nuaj 
