be taken to prevent such enormities from creeping into a free state: in short, as there never had been any man, according to the unanimous opinion of all divines and philosophers, who had ever written on virtue, so perfectly good, but he might still be made somewhat better; so all these politicians agreed, that no constitution was ever so nicely and exactly framed, but it might possibly admit some addition or amendment; turpiterque desperatur quicquid fieri potest. Such (with many other wild projects and strange fancies of the like sort) were the whimsical contents of these famous writings, that had once made so much noise in the world. They are now universally neglected and exploded; they may cry aloud, but no man regardeth them. As lord Bacon was the first who shewed the right way to the study of natural philosophy, so Machiavel, a man of the most abundant invention, the most magnanimous resolution, and the most consummate abilities, was the first of all the moderns who discovered and pointed out the direct and short road to the art of political writing: and as the Whole Duty of Man was calculated for the service and benefit of private families, so Il Principe, that transcendant composition, that master-piece of the human genius, was designed, by its immortal author, for the instruction of royal families only, as the title of it implies, and consecrated to the use of kings and princes. It had no sooner made its appearance among them, than it was beheld with admiration, read with avidity, applied with success, and became the standing rule of politics among all the potentates of Europe, even among the kings of Great Britain, until the Revolution; at which time, by means of certain innovations, and the introduction of some new-fangled opinions, it lost all credit with them, and has never recovered it to this day; nevertheless, as every man in this kingdom is intitled to some share in the government of it, it becomes his duty likewise to inform himself in what manner it may be best governed; and in researches of this kind, these golden rules, which the king had overlooked, or neglected, or despised, his subjects happily discovered, adopted, and practised. That this discovery has been made, is plain to every body who has read the Prince of Machiavel, and the writings of our modern politicians. Many a man too may remember how much he was surprized at the novelty of a book, which, with the most mortifying scorn, contradicted every opinion and principle that he had imbibed from his mother, or had been taught by his father, or his schoolmaster; the avowed design of it being to prove, that dissimulation, hypocrisy, fraud, lying, cruelty, treachery, assassination, and massacres, were not only commodious and expedient, on certain occasions, but that they were moral, political, and positive duties: that all men who did not believe in these unerring rules, were either fools, or madmen; and that all nations who had