_On the Unhappiness of Princes_, in the body of which Niccolo Niccoli is represented as detailing the miseries of exalted rank. On this copious subject he dilates at considerable length, proving from history that the best princes are liable to the bitterest woes incident to human nature. Gaining courage as he proceeds, he attempts to demonstrate that eminence of station is unfriendly to virtue. Examining the conduct of the most renowned chieftains, both monarchs and demagogues, who have rendered themselves conspicuous in the annals of the world, he impeaches them of avarice, cruelty, intemperance, pride, and unbridled ambition; and appeals to his auditors, whether men who are thus enslaved by their passions, can possibly be deemed happy. Arguing upon the position, that man is the creature of the circumstances in which he is placed, he maintains, that the possession of uncontrolled authority betrays the powerful into vice, inasmuch as it frees them from those salutary restraints which are necessary to the confirmation of good principles. Hence, he observes, it frequently happens, that men who have adorned a private station by their virtues have become the disgrace of human nature when they have been raised to the summit of power. From this train of argument Niccolo draws the conclusion, that as happiness seems to be banished from the palaces of the great, if she resides any where on earth, she must be found in the abodes of private individuals, who have the wisdom to set bounds to their desires, and to dedicate themselves to the cultivation of their intellectual powers. The conduct of these men he proposes as an object of imitation, and exhorts his friends to the study of those principles of philosophy which will render them happy in themselves, and fearless of the power, and independent of the favours of the great.[351]