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Updated: May 27, 2025
It would not do to drop his widely advertised habits too suddenly; he could not, in a day, change from a rake to a serious student of such books as Machiavelli's Prince; and he prepared, with utter disgust, for his final bow in the cloak of dissipation. Purely by accident he met, at the Plaza de Toros, Jaime Quintara, Remigio Florez and Andrés.
On the contrary, it contained the most mature and the most splendid of Machiavelli's thoughts, accumulated through his long years of public service; and, strange as it may seem, it embodied the dream of a philosophical patriot for the restitution of liberty to Italy. Florence, indeed, was lost. 'These Signori Medici' were in power.
This atrocity, according to Machiavelli's creed, would have been justified, if Oliverotto had combined cruelty and subtlety in proper proportions. But his savagery was not sufficiently veiled; a prince should never incur odium by crimes of violence, but only use them as the means of inspiring terror.
'This book, he says, 'has often been cast aside with horror as containing maxims of the most revolting tyranny; yet it was Machiavelli's high sense of the necessity of constituting a state which caused him to lay down the principles on which alone states could be formed under the circumstances.
The different Physiognomies of the Italian Republics The Similarity of their Character as Municipalities The Rights of Citizenship Causes of Disturbance in the Commonwealths Belief in the Plasticity of Constitutions Example of Genoa Savonarola's Constitution Machiavelli's Discourse to Leo X. Complexity of Interests and Factions Example of Siena Small Size of Italian Cities Mutual Mistrust and Jealousy of the Commonwealths The notable Exception of Venice Constitution of Venice Her wise System of Government Contrast of Florentine Vicissitudes The Magistracies of Florence Balia and Parlamento The Arts of the Medici Comparison of Venice and Florence in respect to Intellectual Activity and Mobility Parallels between Greece and Italy Essential Differences The Mercantile Character of Italian Burghs The 'Trattato del Governo della Famiglia' The Bourgeois Tone of Florence, and the Ideal of a Burgher Mercenary Arms.
Latin Christianity, vol. vi. p. 361. The history of the despots and the Popes, together with the analysis of Machiavelli's political ethics, prove the demoralization of a society in which crimes so extravagant could have their origin, and cynicism so deliberate could be accepted as a system.
Madame de Stael was reading Machiavelli's conspiracies. "Make haste and take away that piece of evidence against us," said Madame du Maine, laughingly, "it would be one of the strongest." The arrest came, however; it was six A.M., and everybody was asleep, when the king's men entered the Duke of Maine's house.
Machiavelli's general view of the world and of life is by no means a comforting one. Men are simple, governed by their passions and by insatiable desires, dissatisfied with what they have, and inclined to evil. They do good only of necessity; it is hunger which makes them industrious and laws that render them good.
In the present case Machiavelli's advice will find an easy application, since the Duke's death could be advantageous only to Bonaparte, who considered it indispensable to his accession to the crown of France. The motives may be explained, but can they be justified? How could it ever be said that the Due d'Enghien perished as a presumed accomplice in the conspiracy of Georges?
See Plato's Republic; Aristotle's Politics, Cicero's De Republica; Thomas Aquinas' Of the Government of Principles; Dante's De Monarchia; Machiavelli's Prince; Jean Bodin's Of the Commonwealth; Hobbes' Leviathan; Filmer's Patriarcha; Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity; Locke's Civil Government; J.J. Rousseau's Social Contract; Bentham's Fragment on Government; J.S. Mills' Representative Government.
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