Machine summary:
'c- llJACHIAVELLI-A STUDY As we are receding further and further from the age when the Florentine Secretary, Niccolo Machiavelli, lived and worked 1the world is gaining a clearer insight into the life and times of this great originator of Political Philoso• phy.
The Republicans and the Tyrants who constantly indulged in internecine warfare enfeebled the peninsula to such a degree that it was unable to with• stand the shock of foreign ambition, The republican form of government of Venice, Florence and other cities was based on the ancient principles of the Greek City States, which was perhaps an ideal form of rule when the State remained confined within the four walls of the city and which, according to a great lawgiver of Greece, should not extend beyond the range of ordinary human vision when viewed from the highest tower.
Being born a Florentine and having devoted the best portion of his life to the political service of his country, Machiavelli was at first a great partisan of the republican form of government.
or personal aggrandisement without any regard to public safety or the political progress of the people he condemns iri the severest language, but if any action of a sovereign poli• tical authority, be it a single tyrant or a body of republi• can rulers, whether theologically right or wrong, is pro• ductive of general advancement and fruitful of glory and happiness both to the rulers and ruled, he would hail it with acclamation.