lorentine 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_
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 sop