For fourteen years, Machiavelli, born of a noble family, acted as Secretary of the Florentine Republic, and was charged with several important missions. Upon the return of the Medici to Florence in 1512, he was implicated in a conspiracy formed against them, was imprisoned and put to the torture. Subsequently released by Pope Leo X., he was reinstated in his office. It was after his liberation that he wrote his Discourses upon Livy, his books on the Art of War, and his celebrated essay, called “The Prince.” Machiavelli, to our imagination, embodies in his individual person the Idea of Italian political subtlety. His chief work, already mentioned, “The Prince,” expounds the art of Reigning: _i. e._ of acquiring and preserving Power;--of which art perfidy and murder are, in this exposition, two accepted instruments. The prevalent assumption has been that Machiavelli recommends the practice of the art, such as he expounds it. Later vindicators have said that he describes, without approving, the Art of Reigning as exercised by the Italian princes of his day, and that his book is to be regarded as containing a satire, and not a doctrine. The bust before the visitor may furnish materials for the study of this curious question. [From the bust in the Florence Gallery. A most interesting work of the time, bearing the date 1495. An undoubted likeness of this celebrated man. Full of character, with every indication of having been done from the life, although the author is now unknown. Machiavelli’s tomb is in St^{a}. Croce at Florence. Two centuries after his death, Lord Cowper, in 1787, placed over it a bas-relief portrait which was paid for by public subscription set on foot by Lord Cowper, and was executed by Innocenzo Spinazzi.] 184. ANNIBALE CARO. _Writer._ [Born at Città-Nuova, in Illyria, 1507. Died, 1566. Aged 59.] His chief work was a free translation of the Æneid in blank verse: the style is pure, and the sense faithful. Also wrote humorous pieces in the purest Tuscan. [The work of Antonio d’Este, at the expense of Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire, the second wife of the late Duke, a lady to whom we are indebted for originating the excavations in the Forum at Rome.] 185. GALILEO GALILEI. _Philosopher._ [Born at Pisa, 1564. Died 1642. Aged 78.]