what institutions are necessary to preserve the body politic in a condition of vigorous activity.  We may therefore regard the Discorsi as in some sense a continuation of the Principe.  But the wisdom of the scientific politician is no longer placed at the disposal of a sovereign.  He addresses himself to all the members of a state who are concerned in its prosperity.  Machiavelli’s enemies have therefore been able to insinuate that, after teaching tyranny in one pamphlet, he expounded the principles of opposition to a tyrant in the other, shifting his sails as the wind veered.[3] The truth here also lies in the critical and scientific quality of Machiavelli’s method.  He was content to lecture either to princes or to burghers upon politics, as an art which he had taken great pains to study, while his interest in the demonstration of principles rendered him in a measure indifferent to their application.[4] In fact, to use the pithy words of Macaulay, ’the Prince traces the progress of an ambitious man, the Discourses the progress of an ambitious people.  The same principles on which, in the former work, the elevation of an individual is explained, are applied in the latter to the longer duration and more complex interest of a society.’

[1] The political letters addressed to Francesco Vettori, at Rome, and intended probably for the eye of Leo X., were written in 1514.  The discourse addressed to Leo, sulla riforma dello stato di Firenze, may be referred perhaps to 1519.

[2] Of these meetings Filippo de’ Nerli writes in the Seventh Book of his Commentaries, p. 138:  ’Avendo convenuto assai tempo nell’ orto de’ Rucellai una certa scuola di giovani letterati e d’ elevato ingegno, infra quali praticava continuamente Niccolo Machiavelli (ed io ero di Niccolo e di tutti loro amicissimo, e molto spesso con loro convirsavo), s’ esercitavano costoro assai, mediante le lettere, nelle lezioni dell’ istorie, e sopra di esse, ed a loro istanza compose il Machiavello quel suo libro de’ discorsi sopra Tito Livio, e anco il libro di que’ trattati e ragionamenti sopra la milizia.’

    [3] See Pitti, ‘Apologia de’ Cappucci,’ Arch.  Stor. vol. iv.
    pt. ii. p. 294.

[4] The dedication of the Discorsi contains a phrase which recalls Machiavelli’s words about the Principe:  ’Perche in quello io ho espresso quanto io so, e quanto io ho imparato per una lunga pratica e continua lezione delle cose del mondo.’

The Seven Books on the Art of War may be referred with certainty to the same period of Machiavelli’s life.  They were probably composed in 1520.  If we may venture to connect the works of the historian’s leisure, according to the plan above suggested, this treatise forms a supplement to the Principe and the Discorsi.  Both in his analysis of the successful tyrant and in his description of the powerful commonwealth he had insisted on the prime