robberies, rapines, and malversations, from which his known character stands high above all suspicion.' There is the strongest evidence in Guicciardini's writings, official and autobiographical, that here, at least, was not the weak point in his panoply. We may cite, as bearing on it, the following passage which occurs in the Ricordi':

'It is not possible to take such precautions as that ministers shall not plunder: I have myself been perfectly pure, and have had governors and other ministers under me, and with all the diligence I have used and all the example I have given them, I have never been able to provide sufficiently against this. The reason is that money serves for everything, and that, in the present mode of living a rich man is more esteemed than a good one. What still more causes it, is the ignorance or ingratitude of princes, who bear with the bad, and give no better treatment to him who has served well than to him who has done just the contrary.'

We have already cited the unreserved expression of Guicciardini's intimate sentiment respecting the service, to which nevertheless he devoted the entire prime of his public life. That expression recurs again and again in his 'Ricordi':

I desire,' he says, 'to see three things before my death, but I doubt, however long I live, if I shall see any one of them-a wellordered republican regimen in our city-Italy liberated from all the Barbarians-and the world liberated from the wicked tyranny of priests.

Of the duty of good citizens in States which have lost their liberties, we find written, not without self-reference, as follows:

I believe it to be the duty of good citizens, when their country falls into the hands of tyrants, to seek to have influence with them, in order to persuade them to good and against evil. And certainly it cannot but be the interest of a city that at all times good men should have authority; and although the ignorant and passionate people in Florence have always understood it otherwise, even they must perceive how pestiferous would be the government of the Medici, if they had nobody about them but fools and knaves.'

Guicciardini was no whit more favourable to popular than to priestly or monarchical tyranny. He writes of it, as usual, from experience that of Florentine democracy in its intolerance of all superiorities whatsoever :

Who names a people names truly a fool, a monster full of confusions and errors, and whose vain opinions are as far remote from the truth of things as, according to Ptolemy, Spain is from the Indies. . . .! He who would live at Florence with the favour of the people must avoid the reputation of ambition, and every indication of wishing to Vol. 131.-No. 262.

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appear even in the smallest details of daily life greater, more splendid. or more delicate than others. For in a polity which is wholly founded on equality and full of envy, it follows of necessity that every one becomes odious who falls under the suspicion of not willing to be on a footing of equality with others, or who seeks to distinguish himself from the common mode of living.'

Guicciardini's wisdom, it must be admitted, was of that sort which sounds the depths rather than soars to the heights of moral and social existence. His apology must be that in his age were more depths to sound than heights to soar to. How keen his insight into the weaknesses and vices of men, the following lines may testify:

It is observed that old men are more avaricious than young ones, whereas it should be the contrary, because having less time to live, less will suffice them. The reason is said to be because they are more timid. I do not believe that this is the true reason, because I see many of them much more cruel, more licentious, if not in act, in desire, more abhorrent from death than young men. The reason I believe to be that the longer one lives, the more one gets a habit of living, and the more men attach themselves to the things of the world-the more affection they have for them, and the more they are moved by them.'

The following is no new precept of wordly wisdom, but has a somewhat shrewd codicil annexed to it:

'Observe carefully in your conversation never without necessity to say things which reported may displease others, since often, in times and modes which are not thought of, these greatly hurt yourselves: observe this I say carefully, since many even prudent men err in it, and it is difficult to abstain from so erring; but if the difficulty is great, much greater is the fruit which results from thence to him who knows how to do it. If, however, necessity or anger induce you to speak injuriously to another take care at least to say things offensive only to him; for example, if you wish to injure an individual, do not speak evil of his country, family, or parentage; since it is great folly, when you only wish to offend one, to speak injuriously of many.'

The following passage occurs in Lord Campbell's 'Life of Brougham,' which may serve as a negative illustration of the above politic precept :

'He had always great delight in laughing at briefless barristers, a class to which at some periods of his life he was himself in great danger of belonging. He was very incautious in attacking bodies of men, and thus sometimes excited more ill-will than by a personal quarrel which might be soon appeased. Having flattered some of the bishops by asking them to name incumbents for small livings in his gift, he offended them all by saying in their absence, when they had left the house to go to dinner, that "their god was their belly.""

The

The following excellent rule of life for those in responsible functions is applicable to all times and all stations:—

'Do not make more account of having favour than of having reputation; since, reputation being lost, the benevolence of others is lost with it, in place of which succeeds slight esteem; but he who maintains his reputation finds no want of friends, favour and benevolence.'

To the like effect:

'You cannot have a greater virtue than to keep account of honour, since he who does so fears no dangers, and does no base actions. Hold this point fast therefore, and it will be almost impossible that everything should not succeed well with you.-Expertus loquor.'

It is only fair to suppose that in his more elevated, as in his less elevated utterances, Guicciardini set down for his descendants the real results, as he himself viewed them, of his own personal experience. These he sets forth more specifically as follows:

I have been for eleven successive years employed in governments of the Church, and have enjoyed so much favour with my superiors and the people as well, that I was likely to have remained long in those employments, but for the events which happened in 1527 in Rome and Florence. And I found nothing which established me in them more firmly than proceeding as if I did not care to keep them, since resting on this foundation I did without respect or submission whatever properly belonged to the charge I held, which gave me a reputation that favoured me more, and with more dignity, than any insinuation, interest, or industry I could have used.'

All the evidence derivable from the official correspondence, which forms a large part of the publication before us, goes to verify the character Guicciardini here claims for himself of having carried into servitude itself the spirit of an honourable, if not exalted freedom. In his several and successive vicegerencies for the Vicegerent of Heaven he stoutly contested the abusive privileges and exemptions of ecclesiastics from lay jurisdiction. And he always addressed the popes he successively served in the language of independent counsel.

The following more general political observations bear the stamp of experience, and, like many of our author's, are true for all time :

Things doomed to fall not by force but exhaustion, go on much longer than would have been believed at first, as well because the motions are slower than is supposed, as because men, when they are obstinately resolved to endure the worst, do and suffer much more than would have been believed possible. Thus we have seen that a war which was calculated to come to an end by famine, by hardship, 2 F 2

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by want of money, and the like, has lasted longer than would have been believed beforehand. Thus the life of a consumptive patient always prolongs itself beyond the opinion doctors and bystanders have had of it; and a merchant, before he fails by being eaten up with usury, keeps moving longer than was expected."

Things probable probably false.

'I am slow in believing, till I have sure authority, news which are in themselves probable; because, being already in men's conjecture, some one is easily found to forge them; and therefore when I receive any such without a certain author, I suspend belief of them, more than of others of an opposite kind.'

Things universally desired seldom accomplished.

The Marquis of Pescara said to me on the election of Pope Clement VII., that the things which were universally desired were hardly ever accomplished. The reason of this may be that it is the few and not the many that commonly pull the wires which set in motion the affairs of this world, and the ends those have in view are almost always different from the ends of the many, and accordingly produce different effects from those which the many desire.'

In the multitude of counsellors there is no safety.

'Messer Antonio da Venafra was wont to say, and said well-Put seven or eight wise men together, they become so many fools; since not agreeing they rather bring things into dispute than to a conclusion.'

Slow decision good-slow execution bad.

Men cannot be blamed for being a long time in resolving themselves, since, if conjunctures take place at which it is necessary to decide promptly, yet in general he who decides quickly errs rather than he who decides slowly. But what is to be blamed mightily is slowness of execution after a resolution is taken, since it may be said that always hurts and never helps unless by accident.'

Why conspiracies are generally detected.

He who will take notice of the course of combinations and conspiracies may observe that nothing is more ruinous to them than the desire to carry them on too securely, since by this more time is interposed, more men implicated, and more things mixed up with them, which is a cause why practices of that sort are brought to detection. Morcover, it may be believed that Fortune, under whose dominion such things are placed, is angry with those who wish to liberate and secure themselves from her power. I conclude, therefore, that it is safer to execute them with some risk than with much precaution.'

What men ought to do-what they probably will do.

In discourses of State I have often seen men make mistakes of judgment; because they set themselves to examine what this or that

prince reasonably ought to do, and not what he is likely to do according to his nature and degree of understanding. He who would judge what, for example, the King of France will do, should have less regard to what a prudent man ought to do than to what may be expected from the nature and habit of a Frenchman.'

Do not let yourself be thrown out of play.

'He who would be a man of action should not let himself be thrown out of the current of affairs, since out of one arises another, as well by the access which the first gives to the second, as by the reputation which being engaged in affairs brings you. To this also may be well applied the proverb-Di cosa nasce cosa.'

It has always been disputed how far the sinister precepts of policy, branded as Machiavellian, are to be charged to the character of the great Florentine Secretary or to that of his age -in what degree the maxims stigmatized by that name were accepted or reprobated by the better-reputed authorities of those times. Machiavelli and Guicciardini were contemporary politicians, private correspondents, and personal friends, notwithstanding the most marked contrast of character, and thence of career. It may be affirmed on the evidence of the volumes before us that the latter had no disposition to countenance the cool atrocity of the wholesale recipes for extirpating enemies by foul or fair means, which the former generalized, with such shocking unconcern, from the prevalent practices of his age. In an elaborate criticism of Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy,' now first published in these volumes, Guicciardini remarks that extraordinary and violent political remedies always beyond measure please his author [Machiavelli]. It would be difficult to conceive the former looking on, as the latter seems to have done, in his mission from the Florentine republic to Cæsar Borgia, at the preparations making for the immortally infamous surprise and slaughter of Sinigaglia. But it nevertheless appears, on the evidence of the 'Ricordi' before us, that one of the most respectable administrators and authors of his age, as Guicciardini certainly was, was considerably infected, albeit in a milder form, with what this age terms Machiavellism. The following sentences from the source above cited sufficiently establish that fact. Machiavellic maxim of politic falsehood.

'Make a practice of denying what you do not wish to be known, or affirming what you wish to be believed, since, whatever probabilities, or whatever certainties there may be to the contrary, a bold affirmative or negative often puts him who hears you off the scent.'

Machiavellic maxim of government.

The government of States cannot be carried on according to

conscience,