attempted before, and is still, for its conciseness and truth, as good as any that can be read."

In the Florentine history, the merit of acute and vigorous thought which characterizes all the productions of Machiavelli, is enhanced by the skill with which he arranges his subject and conducts his narrative. The transitions are generally easy and natural, and the charm of the narrative is preserved by the peculiar art with which he interweaves his generalization with the facts from which it proceeds, and sometimes even with the sentence that records it. For the most important, however, of these remarks, a particular place has been reserved at the commencement of each book, where they serve as a general introduction to the portion that follows. Some of the most interesting questions are here treated with an energy and justness of thought which surpasses anything in even the best chapters of his Discourses, and with the peculiar and powerful train of logic which distinguishes all the works of Machiavelli. If it were possible to judge of a mind like his by detached passages and fragments of his general train of thought, no part of his writings could be selected with so much propriety as the Introductions to the books of the Florentine Histories.

No work, if we except the Decameron of Boccaccio, has exercised upon Italian prose the same degree of influence as this. But while Boccaccio, misguided by his reverence for the Latin, laboured to form his style upon the arbitrary inversions and periodic sentences of the Roman classics, Machiavelli, with a juster appreciation of the genius of the Italian, adopted a simpler and more pleasing course, equally free from the inversions of the fourteenth century and the Gallicisms of the eighteenth. The language of the purer writers of Italy has continued to our own times, as it was left them by Machiavelli, and his works possess nearly the same freshness of expression which characterizes in our own language the prose of Dryden and of Addison.

The style of Machiavelli is of a kind of which foreigners can in part perceive and appreciate the beauty. Uniting the excellences of clearness and conciseness with great vigour of expression and perfect harmony of arrangement, it conveys the ideas of the writer with a force and precision which make the deepest impressions upon the memory, while they leave no room for misapprehension. His words and phrases are peculiarly appropriate, and have that graceful eloquence which always results from a skilful use of idioms. There are no laboured expressions, no nicely wrought sentences, but the whole moves on, plain and concise in argument, clear and animated in description, nervous and powerful in declamation, warming with the feelings of the writer, and reflecting every shade of his thoughts.

In Clement VII. Machiavelli found a firm and constant protector, and the most important portion of his political career now opened before him. The condition of Italy was at this period most deplorable. The various states were alarmed at the ascendency of the emperor Charles V., and the Constable Bourbon was leading the troops of the imperial army by slow advances, with the intention of enriching them by the sack of Florence or Rome. The danger was nearest to the former city, and Machiavelli was employed there to inspect the progress of the fortifications. He executed his task diligently, and, as was his wont, put his whole heart and soul into

his occupation. In the meantime the imperial army continued to advance, and Machiavelli was sent several times to his friend Guicciardini, who was governor first of Modena and afterwards of Parma, to take measures with regard to the best method of securing the republic. A truce was concluded between Clement VII. and the ministers of Charles V., but it was not acceded to by Bourbon and his army; which circumstance being unknown to the pope he dismissed his troops, and remained wholly unguarded, whilst Bourbon entered Tuscany, and without staying to attack Florence, hurried on by forced marches and took Rome by assault. Machiavelli followed the Italian army as it advanced to deliver the pope, who was besieged in the Castel Sant Angelo. From the environs of Rome he repaired to Civita Vecchia, where Andrea Doria commanded å fleet; and from him he obtained the means of repairing by sea to Leghorn. Before embarking, he received intelligence of the revolution of Florence. On hearing of the taking of Rome, on the 6th of May, the republicans rose against the Medici, and they were forced to quit the city. The government was changed on the 16th of May, and things were restored to the same state they were in 1512.

Machiavelli returned to Florence full of hope. He considered that the power was now in the hands of his friends, and that he should again enter on public life under prosperous auspices. His hopes were disappointedpublic feeling was against him: his previous services, his imprisonment and torture, were forgotten, while it was remembered that, since 1513, he had been continually aiming at getting employed by the Medici, against whom the public feeling was violently excited. He was actually in their service when they were driven from the city. These circumstances rendered him displeasing to men who considered themselves the deliverers of their country. Machiavelli was disappointed by their neglect, and deeply wounded by their distrust. He fell ill, and taking some pills to which he was in the habit of having recourse when he was indisposed, he grew worse, and died two days after, on the 22nd of June, 1527, in the fiftyninth year of his age. A letter of one of his sons describes the particulars of his death, and mentions that he died in the greatest poverty. He was buried at the church of Santa Croce in Florence, and left five children by his wife Marietta Corsini, who survived him, with but little or no fortune.

Machiavelli was of middle stature, rather thin, and of olive complexion. He was gay in conversation, obliging with his friends, and fond of the arts. He had readiness of wit; and it is related of him that, being reproved for the maxims of his "Prince," he replied, "If I taught princes how to tyrannize, I also taught the people how to destroy them." He probably developes in these words the secrets of his writings. He was willing to teach both parties, but his heart was with the republic. In his works he united the keenest comic wit with the profoundest philosophical reflection; the skill of the satirist with the gravity of the historian; the warmth of poetic feeling with the shrewdness of political sagacity; and bringing into actual life the same versatility and apparent contradiction of character-the pliant skill of an Italian diplomatist with the virtues of a faithful citizen and the tenderness of an affectionate father and friend. In short, whether we consider him in his life or in his works, we shall be constantly struck with the peculiar and strongly marked character of both, and be prepared

to acknowledge that if the "mind of man be indeed the proper study of mankind," few volumes contain a richer store of varied wisdom than the life and writings of Machiavelli.

None of the works of Machiavelli were printed during his life, but the copies which had been prepared for the use of his friends, or of the patrons to whom particular portions were dedicated, had been freely circulated in manuscript both in Florence and in Rome. Within a few years, however, after his death, all his larger works were printed; and obtaining extensive circulation, soon gave rise to that violent controversy which has been continued, with very little increase of judgment or diminution of virulence, during the course of some centuries. The first to commence this warfare was the celebrated Cardinal Pole, who assailed with great vehemence the principles of the "Prince." This attack was followed in a few years by a violent dissertation of the Bishop Caterino Politi. A French Protestant, Innocent Gentiletto, next entered the lists, and the warfare, thus begun, was continued with a virulence of which it is difficult to find the parallel. The works of this celebrated Italian have accordingly been interdicted by several popes, and for a long time considered to contain principles subversive of religion and humanity.

More than two centuries passed away before justice was done to the memory of Machiavelli, when, through the exertions and liberality of Earl Cowper, a splendid edition of his works was published at Florence in 1782, and in 1787 a monument was erected over his remains, bearing the following inscription:

Tanto Nomini nullum par Elogium

Nicolaus Machiavelli.

Obiit Anno A. P. V. M.D.XXVII.

THE

FLORENTINE HISTORY

OF

NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

Irruption of Northern people upon the Roman territories-VisigothsBarbarians called in by Stilicho-Vandals in Africa-Franks and Burgundians give their names to France and Burgundy-The Huns-Angles give the name to England-Attila, king of the Huns, in Italy-Genseric takes Rome-The Lombards.

THE people who inhabit the northern parts beyond the Rhine and the Danube, living in a healthy and prolific region, frequently increase to such vast multitudes, that part of them are compelled to abandon their native soil, and seek a habitation in other countries. The method adopted, when one of these provinces had to be relieved of its superabundant population, was to divide into three parts, each containing an equal number of nobles and of people, of rich and of poor. The third upon whom the lot fell, then went in search of new abodes, leaving the remaining two-thirds in possession of their native country.

These migrating masses destroyed the Roman empire by the facilities for settlement which the country offered when the emperors abandoned Rome, the ancient seat of their dominion, and fixed their residence at Constantinople; for by this step they exposed the western empire to the rapine of both their ministers and their enemies; the remoteness of their position preventing them either from seeing or providing for its necessities. To suffer the overthrow of such an extensive empire, established by the blood of so many brave and

B

virtuous men, showed no less folly in the princes themselves than infidelity in their ministers; for not one irruption alone, but many, contributed to its ruin; and these barbarians exhibited much ability and perseverance in accomplishing their object.

The first of these northern nations that invaded the empire after the Cimbrians, who were conquered by Caius Marius, was the Visigoths-which name in our language signifies "Western Goths." These, after some battles fought upon its confines, long held their seat of dominion upon the Danube, with consent of the emperors; and although, moved by various causes, they often attacked the Roman provinces, were always kept in subjection by the imperial forces. The emperor Theodosius conquered them with great glory; and, being wholly reduced to his power, they no longer elected a sovereign of their own, but, satisfied with the terms which he granted them, lived and fought under his ensigns and authority. On the death of Theodosius, his sons Arcadius and Honorius succeeded to the empire, but not to the talents and fortune of their father; and the times became changed with the princes. Theodosius had appointed a governor to each of the three divisions of the empire, Ruffinus to the eastern, to the western Stilicho, and Gildo to the African. Each of these, after the death of Theodosius, determined not to be governors merely, but to assume sovereign dominion over their respective provinces. Gildo and Ruffinus were suppressed at their outset; but Stilicho, concealing his design, ingratiated himself with the new emperors, and at the same time so disturbed their government, as to facilitate his occupation of it afterwards. To make the Visigoths their enemies, he advised that the accustomed stipend allowed to this people should be withheld; and as he thought these enemies would not be sufficient alone to disturb the empire, he contrived that the Burgundians, Franks, Vandals, and Alans (a northern people in search of new habitations), should assail the Roman provinces.

That they might be better able to avenge themselves for the injury they had sustained, the Visigoths, on being deprived of their subsidy, created Alaric their king; and having assailed the empire, succeeded, after many reverses, in overrunning Italy, and finally in pillaging Rome.