Publisher's Synopsis
Of all Machiavelli's works The Prince is undoubtedly the greatest; and a new English edition of it is likely to be welcome to all those who have not the advantage of rea-ding it in the classical Italian original.For a true appreciation of Machiavelli, impossible in a brief Preface, I must refer the English reader to Macau-lay's Essay on the Italian historian and statesman In it he will see how our Author's ideas and work were wrongfully and wilfully misinterpreted by the very men who, while profiting by his wisdom, have with great ing-ratitude criticised the statesman and defamed his name, as that of the inventor of the worst political system ever imagined. Yet, as his whole life was an indefatigable and unremitting endeavour to secure for his native Florence a good and popular government, and as he lost his great office of Secretary to the Florentine Republic on account of his avowed liberal opinions, it is not only unjust but ridiculous to accuse him of helping tyrants to enslave the people.
