Machiavelli's life was full of disappointments and he was not one of those idealists who could live above and apart from the things of this world. Ile was preeminently a man of affairs, whose studies and activities were inseparably connected with human society in its most active phases. It is as a writer upon history, di plomacy, and politics that he holds a high and important place. In this field his position as a man of letters and as a thinker is secure. Here his style is at its best and he imparts to all his work the keen interest that belongs to a direct and vigorous realism. As a historian he is not critical in the treatment of his material, but in other respects lie belongs to the modern historical school, his discriminating philosophical method marking a sharp breaking away from the mediaeval type of chronicler and a return to the models of the classical historians. His principal historical work was the History of Florence, in eight books, beginning with the Germanic inva sions and continuing down to the death of Lo renzo de' Medici. More useful, however, to the student to-day are his numerous reports upon his diplomatic missions, and the brief papers on foreign affairs growing out of them. The un finished Life of Castrucci° Castracani is of little value.
Aside from the notes on diplomacy and politics contained in his diplomatic papers, Machiavelli's political system is embodied in the Prince and the Discourses, neither of which is complete with out the other. The cynical maxims which abound in them have given the writer an evil reputation which he does not deserve. It must always he remembered that Machiavelli did not discuss ideal, but actual conditions; and drew his deductions from the facts acquired by close observation. He thus became the founder of the modern school of scientific politics. Look ing at his system in a large way and eliminating the cynicism which his environment naturally produced, we find that much of what he set forth has been adopted by the soundest political science of to-day. Machiavelli had no faith in aristocracies. He recognized but two forms of government as practicable—absolutism and the democratic republic. The latter was his ideal, hut the former he believed to be sometimes neces sary. As the first exponent of the idea of a united Italy he showed in the Prince how that great end might be brought about by efficient leadership. The Discourses elaborate the idea of
a republic upon the same fundamental principles. He did not believe that the great ends of govern ment in the upbuilding of the State should be sacrificed to abstract ethics. He was the fore runner of the school of political thinkers who divorce ethics and politics, not because they are necessarily in conflict, but because they are dis tinct sciences. His system in general is one of policy, resting on the inherent imperfection of men and looking to the balance of conflicting evils, It is in no sense a theoretical political philosophy, though it seems to have such a phi losophy in view.
Of 31achiavelli's writings only the Art of War was printed during his life. A few years after his death the Discourses, the Prince, and History of Florence were printed at Rome with the au thorization of Pope Clement VII., but Paul IV. put them on the Index Expurgatorius, and this was confirmed by the Council of Trent in 1503. Eight years later the Commission on the Index proposed to '.Alachiavelli's descendants to publish an expurgated edition, the author's name being suppressed. This offer was rejected. in 1772 a partial edition in three volumes was published in London; and in 1782 Earl Cowper published a four-volume edition at his own cost. They were not published in Italy until the nineteenth cen tury, when the Milan (1810AI) and the Italia (1813) editions appeared. A new edition was begun in 1873 by Passerini and Milanesi, hut was not completed. Au admirable English transla tion of the historical, diplomatic. and political writings is that of Detmold. The Writings of Niccolo Machiavelli (Boston, 1891). The best biography and commentary on his place in his tory is Villari, Kierol6 Machiavelli e i suoi tempi (1877-82; Eng. trans. by Linde Villari, London, I892). See also Mourrisson, Machiaed (Paris, 1883) ; Tommasini. La vita e gli seritti di Pic colo Machiavelli (Turin, 1882). The Prince is published in numerous editions in Italian. Eng lish, and other languages; for literature relating to it, see 3lohl, Ge-schichte and Litteratur der Staatsieissenschaft (Erlangen,