ent into which all Europe had
been thrown by these wars brought to light the true condition of things
in Italy as respects morality. Locomotion in a population is followed by
intellectual development. The old stationary condition of things in
Europe was closed by the Crusades. National movement gave rise to better
observation, better information, and could not but be followed by
national reflexion. And though we are obliged to speak of the European
population as being in one sense in a barbarous state, it was a moral
population, earnestly believing the truth of every doctrine it had been
taught, and sincerely expecting that those doctrines would be carried to
their practical application, and that religious profession must, as a
matter of course, be illustrated by religious life. The Romans
themselves were an exception to this. They had lived too long behind the
scenes. Indeed, it may be said that all the Italian peninsula had
emancipated itself from that delusion, as likewise certain classes in
France, who had become familiar with the state of things during the
residence of the popes at Avignon. It has been the destiny of Southern
France to pass, on a small scale, under the same influence, and to
exhibit the same results as were appointed for all Europe at last.

And now, what was it that awakening Europe found to be the state of
things in Italy? I avert my eyes from looking again at the biography of
the popes; it would be only to renew a scene of sin and shame. Nor can
I, without injustice to truth, speak of the social condition of the
inhabitants of that peninsula without relating facts which would compel
my reader to turn over the page with a blush. I prefer to look at the
maxims of political life which had been followed for many centuries, and
which were first divulged by one of the greatest men that Italy has
produced, in a work--A.D. 1513--truly characterized as a literary
prodigy. Certainly nothing can surpass in atrocity the maxims therein
laid down.

[Sidenote: The principles of Italian statesmanship--Machiavelli.]
Machiavelli, in that work, tells us that there are three degrees of
capacity among men. That one understands things by his own natural
powers; another, when they are explained to him; a third, not at all.
In dealing with these different classes different methods must be
used. The last class, which is by far the most numerous, is so simple
and weak that it is very easy to dupe those who belong to it.