PREFACE. xi
several passages on which the obscurity of the original induced him to hesitate. The manuscript was also submitted to one of the most elegant scholars of the age, who compared it with the original, and noted his remarks: the consequence of this mode of proceeding has been, that what might have been finished in a few weeks has been more than three years in hand.
Instead of a commentary, it has been recommended to throw the parallel into the form of an Introduction, wherein the translator has dwelt at some length on the principles of his author, his motives for writing, the consideration he was held in by the family of Medici, and the cause of his being universally denounced; and if it would not have occupied too much space, he would have shewn not only that Buonaparte has reduced the theory of Machiavelli to practice, but that Machiavelli himself formed his system on the opinions of Tacitus (vide Annals); and, indeed, the doctrines and principles of these two great men bear so close an analogy, that we cannot justly bestow either praise or censure on the
