[1] Thuc. iii. 83.  The whole of the passage about Corcyra in
    the third book of Thucydides (chs. 82 and 83) applies literally
    to the moral condition of Italy at this period.

We learn from Varchi that Machiavelli was execrated in Florence for his Principe, the poor thinking it would teach the Medici to take away their honor, the rich regarding it as an attack upon their wealth, and both discerning in it a death-blow to freedom.[1] Machiavelli can scarcely have calculated upon this evil opinion, which followed him to the grave:  for though he showed some hesitation in his letter to Vettori about the propriety of presenting the essay to the Medici, this was only grounded on the fear lest a rival should get the credit of his labors.  Again, he uttered no syllable about its being intended for a trap to catch the Medici, and commit them to unpardonable crimes.  We may therefore conclude that this explanation of the purpose of the Principe (which, strange to say, has approved itself to even recent critics) was promulgated either by himself or by his friends, as an after-thought, when he saw that the work had missed its mark, and at the time when he was trying to suppress the MS.[2] Bernardo Giunti in the dedication of the edition of 1532, and Reginald Pole in 1535, were, I believe, the first to put forth this fanciful theory in print.  Machiavelli could not before 1520 have boasted of the patriotic treachery with which he was afterwards accredited, so far, at any rate, as to lose the confidence of the Medicean family; for in that year the Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici commissioned him to write the history of Florence.

    [1] Storia Fior. lib. iv. cap. 15.

[2] See Varchi, loc. cit.  The letter written by Machiavelli to Fr. Guicciardini from Carpi, May 17, 1521, should be studied in this connection.  It is unfortunately too mutilated to be wholly intelligible.  After explaining his desire to be of use to Florence, but not after the manner most approved of by the Florentines themselves, he says:  ’io credo che questo sarebbe il vero modo di andare in Paradiso, imparare la via dell’ Inferno per fuggirla.’

The Principe, after its dedication to Lorenzo, remained in MS., and Machiavelli was not employed in spite of the continual solicitations of his friend Vettori.[1] Nothing remained for him but to seek other patrons, and to employ his leisure in new literary work.  Between 1516 and 1519, therefore, we find him taking part in the literary and philosophical discussions of the Florentine Academy, which assembled at that period in the Rucellai Gardens.[2] It was here that he read his Discourses on the First Decade of Livy—­a series of profound essays upon the administration of the state, to which the sentences of the Roman historian serve as texts.  Having set forth in the Principe the method of gaining or maintaining sovereign power, he shows in the Discorsi