TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

In casting our eyes over the volume which is now submitted to the reader, we find a few instances of inadvertence which require correction: thus, the sneer at Wieland's honest indignation, (p. 187, I. 1,) should have been softened or suppressed, because it was very unwarrantable; and at page 358, a few lines from the commencement of the article, we should have corrected the critic by substituting the words at Whampoa, seventyfive miles from the mouth of the river, in the place of fifteen miles below, &c.

To some of our readers, the controversy respecting Gen. Putnam may appear to have been terminated too soon, particularly as we promised to sum up the whole testimony. This appeared to us unnecessary, because the assailant has never exercised his right to a rejoinder, and his attack was amply refuted by the answer of Mr. Putnam. In addition to this consideration, it is proper to state, that the controversy produced one or two voluminous publications in Boston. While we are on this subject, we must inform certain booksellers, that although there may not be any violation of the law respecting literary property, in reprinting and selling at a low price, articles from this Journal, in the pamphlet form, we consider it as an infringement upon our labours which deserves reprehension. We hope we shall not be obliged to be more explicit.

Subscribers are again reminded that particular directions should be given to their bookbinders respecting the appendix to this and the preceding volume. There are eleven half sheets or forms in this appendix, which should be collected together and bound with either of the volumes

VOL. VI.

THE PORT FOLIO.

FOURTH SERIES.

CONDUCTED BY OLIVER OLDSCHOOL, ESQ.

Various; that the mind

Of desultory man, studious of change

And pleased with novelty, may be indulged.-CowPER.

REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITINGS OF MACHIAVEL,

WITH A SLIGHT SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER.

[Continued from page 348.]

DURING the interval between 1521 and 1527, that is to say, after the elevation of cardinal Giulio de Medici to the papal throne, and before the expulsion of Alexander and Ippolito de Medici, Machiavel published his last work, the History of Florence, which he dedicated to pope Clement VII. and which may be said to have been written officially.

Our author did not long survive the expulsion of Alexander and Ippolito de Medici; a medicine which he took as a preservative, deprived him of life in 1527. He died as he lived, in a state of virtuous poverty, leaving three sons and a daughter by his se cond wife Marietta Corsini.

There are a number of curious stories about his impiety. Some say he died uttering blasphemies against the christian religion; others that he was compelled by the magistrates to take the last sacraments. Another story is, that in his last moments he had a vision, of a number of ragged dirty beggars, blind men and lame, from the highways and hedges, whom he saw crowding into the kingdom of heaven; that they disappeared, and he beheld a

number of celebrated men, among whom were Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Plutarch, and Terence, who invited him to go with them, saying, they were the reprobate and the damned, for that the wisdom of the world is enmity with God; that he joyfully accepted their invitation, saying, he would rather be with these great men in hell, to consult with them about political questions, than in heaven with the others; and presently (adds the fabulist) he died, and went to talk about political subjects in the other world.

There are many reasons to induce us to suspend our belief with regard to the impiety of Machiavel. A letter from his son Peter to Francisco Nelli, professor in the university of Pisa, refutes the calumny of his anti-christianity. He writes thus: "My dear friend-With weeping eyes, I give you the sad news, that on the 22d of this month (June, 1527) our dear father died of pains in his body, brought upon him by a medicine he took on the 20th. He confessed to father Mattheus, who attended his death-bed. He leave us, as you know, in great poverty; when you return, we' shall have much to say by word of mouth. I write in haste, and can only add my good wishes."

Varchi relates that he had heard Machiavel's name to be in general disrepute; that he had an unbridled tongue, and manners none of the purcst. However, says he, he was pleasing in conversation, ready to serve his friends, and a patron of the virtuous. Does not this more than counterbalance all the hear-says? Shall we believe only the band disregard the good when so much better attested?

There is the like contradiction in the opinion of the inquisitors. "Nicolaus Machiavelli Florentinus atheus sed superstitiosus, pseudo-politicus et impius quamvis visus sit voluisse videri Christianus.*

Thus has it ever been the sad fate of great men, who surpassed their times, to be vilified by their cotemporaries, and calumniated after death by the echoes of their blasphemers. So much the more is it incumbent on a more enlightened posterity to scatter the fogs that have mildewed their laurels, and to teach futurity aright.

* See Index Librorum Prohibitorum, &c.

SECTION IV.

"Machiavel etoit un honnete homme et un bon citoyen: mais attaché a la maison de Medici il etoit forcé dans l'oppression de sa patrie de deguiser son amour pour la liberté. Le choix seul de son execrable heros manifeste assez son intention secrete, et l'opposition des maximes de son livre du Prince a celles de ses discours sur Tite Live et de son Histoire de Florence demontre que ce profond Politique n'a eu jusqu' ici que des Jecteurs superficiels ou corrompus."

Rousseau du Contrat Social. 1. 3. c. 6.

In the preceding sections I have given an outline of the life of this celebrated writer-faint indeed, but as perfect as the mutilated accounts which have descended to posterity would admit of. My readers have already, no doubt, more than once felt surprise that such a man should bear such a character; that the zealous friend of liberty, who continually incited his countrymen to shake off the yoke which oppressed them, should be stigmatised as the champion of tyranny and the apologist of tyrants. It can surely only proceed from an ignorance of his real character, that the multitude has ever,mistaken him for the dangerous teacher of injustice; surely the uninformed philanthropist alone has shuddered at his name.

I will point to the reader the source of these dishonouring prejudices. Paulus Jovius, a man who weighed in the scale of his own passions and prejudices the character of every one whom he praised or blamed; who even gloried in using a golden pen for his friends, and an iron pen for his foes; who always caught at popular cry rather than at truth, and was far from being himself a pattern of morality-Paulus Jovius is the chief cause of the unfavourable light in which Machiavel has been beheld.

It is particularly to be observed, that his chief enemies are to be found among his cotemporaries, and that the most bitter of them belonged to a caste whose hostility he had provoked by severely lashing their vices in a drama called Il Frate. His works were read with great avidity in England during that celebrated period when the commons of England began to resist the despotism of Charles I. When levity and vice were restored with Charles II. they fell into disrepute. It is a well-known fact, that works of extraordinary merit are seldom esteemed in the age in which they are written, and that authors must be content to refer

their productions to a less partial and generally more enlightened posterity. It is a circumstance considerably in favour of Machiavel, that the public attention is at present much directed towards his works in Germany, where they meet with deserved approbation.*

Having thus given an account of the life of Machiavel, it remains to inquire the reason why such a man should have the detestable character which the generality of the world have attributed to him. As during his life he is acknowledged to have acted the part of a good and virtuous citizen, it can be only in the works which he has left behind him that his calumniators can have the least foundation for their calumnies. And here it is particularly necessary to advert to the particular circumstances under which his different works were written.

I cannot by any means give the reader so clear an idea of the real tendency of Machiavel's political works, as by presenting him with some extracts from such of his writings as were published when his country was in a state of freedom, and he could, in consequence, declare his real sentiments without danger, and then contrasting them with passages from "The Prince," which was published during the tyranny of the Medici; a time at which he could not, without the risk of punishment, declare openly his sentiments, and if he wished to instruct his fellow sufferers at all, he could only do it with safety in an obscure and ironical manner.

The title of the tenth chapter of the first book of the Dissertations on the Decads of Livy is,

"In proportion as the founders of a republic merit praise, do the institutors of tyranny deserve execration." The whole of this chapter breathes a most amiable spirit, and would be of itself sufficient to refute the calumnies which have blasted the reputation of Machiavel. Let some extracts speak for themselves.

"No one can be of judgment so depraved as to hesitate in giving preference to virtuous over vicious characters. Nevertheless, how many are there who, deceived by false appearances, and dazzled by the tinsel lustre of splendid actions, are inclined to regard with patience the most detestable character! How many men does weeping history record, who, hav

*The writer of this biography has received some assistance from the Vertheidigung des Machiavelli," contained in Wieland's Mercur for June, 1792.