whose constitution was so vicious, that it was by turns the victim of licentious democracy, and an oppressive anistrocracy. By turns torn by the faction of the nobles, and by that of the populace, Florence: presented a scene of perpetual convulsions: The calmest intervals she enjoyed were a mere suspension of hostilities between the exhausted parties, which were resumed by those who first recovered breath.
Machiavelli, deeply affected with the evils which desolated his unfortunate country; as a man of genius, far from attributing them to the passions; or errors of those who governed-an error too common amongst mankind, rose superior to particular considerations and the private interests of the age in which he lived, soon perceived that so many disorders were: the natural consequences of the radical vices of the constitution. The power and the glory of ancient Rome fixed his attention. The Romans had several points of relation with the Florentines, as the identity of country, climate, vicinity, ancient rela-
