The Italian Revolution, passing from the Liberal to the national stage, at once adopted his name and placed itself under his invocation. Count Sclopis, though he declared him _Penseur profond, ecrivain admirable_, deplored this untimely preference: "Il m'a ete penible de voir le gouvernement provisoire de la Tuscane, en 1859, le lendemain du jour ou ce pays recouvrait sa liberte, publier un decret, portant qu'une edition complete des oeuvres de Machiavel serait faite aux frais de l'etat." The research even of our best masters, Villari and Tommasini, is prompted by admiration. Ferrari, who comes so near him in many qualities of the intellect, proclaims him the recorder of fate: "Il decrit les roles que la fatalite distribue aux individus et aux masses dans ces moments funestes et glorieux ou ils sont appeles a changer la loi et la foi des nations." His advice, says La Farina, would have saved Italy. Canello believes that he is disliked because he is mistaken for a courtier: "L'orrore e l' antipatia che molti critici hanno provato per il Machiavelli son derivati dal pensare che tutti i suoi crudi insegnamenti fossero solo a vantaggio del Principe." One biographer, Mordenti, exalts him as the very champion of conscience: "Risuscitando la dignita dell' umana coscienza, ne affermo l' esistenza in faccia alla ragione." He adds, more truly, "E uno dei personaggi del dramma che si va svolgendo nell' eta nostra." That is the meaning of Laurent when he says that he has imitators but no defenders: "Machiavel ne trouve plus un seul partisan au XIXe siecle.--La posterite a voue son nom a l'infamie, tout en pratiquant sa doctrine." His characteristic universality has been recognised by Baudrillart: "En exprimant ce mauvais cote, mais ce mauvais cote, helas, eternel! Machiavel n'est plus seulement le publiciste de son pays et de son temps; it est le politique de tous les siecles.--S'il fait tout dependre de la puissance individuelle, et de ses facultes de force, d'habilete de ruse, c'est que, plus le theatre se retrecit, plus l'homme influe sur la marche des evenements." Matter finds the same merits which are applauded by the Italians: "Il a plus innove pour la liberte que pour le despotisme, car autour de lui la liberte etait inconnue, tandis que le despotisme lui posait partout." And his reviewer, Longperier, pronounces the doctrine "parfaitement appropriee aux etats d'Italie." Nourrisson, with Fehr, one of the few religious men who still have a good word for the Secretary, admires his sincerity: "_Le Prince_ est un livre de bonne foi, ou l'auteur, sans songer a mal, n'a fait que traduire en maximes les pratiques habituelles a ses contemporains." Thiers, though he surrendered _The Prince_, clung to the _Discorsi_--the _Discorsi_, with the pointed and culminating text produced by Mr. Burd. In the archives of the ministry he might have found how the idea struck his successful predecessor, Vergennes: "Il est des choses plus fortes