able impression they are calculated to produce when detached[1].'
The reader being now, I will hope, disposed to question the truth of the popular opinion, to the prejudice of Machiavelli, will naturally enquire how it first arose, and what conspired to render it universal; being repeated by millions, who never perused a page of his writings.
The circumstance is curious, and at the present moment important, as it unfolds part of the policy of Buonaparte, and places his obligations to Machiavelli in a striking point of view; in order to which, we will take a brief survey of the state of Italy at the time he wrote, with a short sketch of his life, which will elucidate many passages of his " Prince," and account for the dissemination of those principles which, abstractedly considered, are revolting to the human mind.
Niccolo Machiavelli was born at Florence in the year 1466, and displayed that preco-
- ↑ Discours sur Machiavel, par Guiraudet.
