University of Virginia Library

“The history of the origin, rise and progress of the Florentine Republic,
by whomsoever written, provided the requisite accuracy and discrimination
in the collection and arrangement of the materials were secured, could not
fail of possessing a deep interest for every cultivated and enlightened
mind—for every American who has been accustomed, in his survey of ancient
and modern history, to dwell with rapture over the brilliant annals of
the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages, where the germ of modern liberty
and modern civilization first presents itself to view. But when he is enabled
to retrace this fertile field of great events, of great ideas, of great and
good men, and of great and lasting results upon the fortune of the race, with
the all-accomplished but much abused and strangely misrepresented Machiavelli—the
shrewd, observing, practical and experienced statesman—
the deep and penetrating philosopher—the disguised but no less firm and
uncompromising patriot—the cautious and wary, but upright politician, he
feels that he is imbibing ample and invigorating draughts from the very wellspring
of historic truth.”