"a crearlo Leon d' umile agnel." _Satire VII._] [Footnote 102: Annibale Maleguccio, to whom the Satire is addressed.] [Footnote 103: A serpent, supposed to have horns; probably the hooded snake of the East Indies,--one of the most venomous and deadly of the kind: here it is the emblem of avarice.] [Footnote 104: "Ch' ogni quiete sia, nè ve n' è alcuna."] [Footnote 105: "Vi si vide anco che ciascun che ascende Commincia a _inasinir_ le prime membre, E resta umano quel che a dietro paude."] [Footnote 106: See the emblem already quoted from Satire VII.] [Footnote 107: Hope, that remained at the bottom of Pandora's fatal gift to the brother of Prometheus.] [Footnote 108: The Po, into which Phaëton was struck from the chariot of the Sun.] [Footnote 109: "Non molto va Rinaldo, che si vede Saltar innanzi il suo destrier feroce: 'Ferma, Bajardo mio, deh! ferme il piede; Che l'esser senza te troppo mi noce.' Per questo il destrier sordo a lui non riede, Anzi più se ne va sempre veloce; Segue Rinaldo, e d'ira si distrugge: --Ma sequitiamo Angelica, che fugge." "Not far hath gone Rinaldo, ere he spies His fiery steed before him, bounding free: 'Stay, my Bayardo! prythee stay,' he cries; 'For much am I annoy'd for lack of thee.' Yet the deaf horse returns not, nor replies, Save with his heels that swift and swifter flee. Rinaldo follows, fuming in the race, --But we must give the flying lady chase."] [Footnote 110: Witness the total miscarriage of Tasso, in his "Gerusalemme Conquistata," as an improvement upon the "Gerusalemme Liberata;" and of Akenside, in his philosophic revision of the "Pleasures of Imagination."] MACHIAVELLI 1469-1522 There is no more delightful literary task than the justifying a hero or writer, who has been misrepresented and reviled; but such is human nature, or such is the small progress that we have made in the knowledge of it, that in most instances we excuse, rather than exculpate, and display doubts instead of bringing forward certainties. Machiavelli has been the object of much argument, founded on the motives that impelled him to write his celebrated treatise of the "Prince," which he declares to be a manual for sovereigns, and Rousseau has named the manual of republicans. The question of whether he sat down in cold blood, and as approving them, or whether he wrote in irony, the detestable maxims he boldly and explicitly urges, has been disputed by many. Voltaire has joined in the cry against him, begun by our countryman cardinal Pole. It is a curious question, to be determined only by the author himself. We must seek in the actions of his life, and in his letters, for a solution of the mystery. Ample materials are afforded, and if we are unable to throw a clear light on the subject, at least we shall adduce all the evidence, and, after summing it up impartially, leave the jury of readers to decide.