undisguised display of bold intrepid sentiment, the sense of self-importance, and the pride of genius, such as generally accompany great talents, and usher the more useful and splendid virtues into the world. In a monarchy therefore where all is subservient to the will of the sovereign, Virtue must often veil her beauty, not to eclipse the splendor of the throne or divert the homage of the people; in a republic, where the natural feelings of mankind have full scope, Vice must hide her deformity, least she should excite hatred, and defeat her own purposes. Look at the Grecian republics, even when most convulsed by faction or maddened by war; contemplate, for instance, Athens and Lacedæmon in that bloody struggle of power and talents, which terminated in the temporary subjection of the former. Crimes of a very black die shock the feelings, and sufferings and misfortunes melt the heart; but how many virtues rise in opposition, what vigor, what perseverance, what activity, and what patience exalt the combatants, and inflame the mind of the reader! A pestilence ravaged Athens within and a cruel and unsuccessful war wasted her without, yet what a constellation of great and wise men blazed around her, and brightened the gloom of her destiny. Socrates and Thucydides, Pericles and Alcibiades, Sophocles and Euripides, all grace the annals of this disastrous Peloponnesian contest, and shed round Athens a lustre more vivid and more permanent than the glory of all the victories of Lacedæmon. Who would not prefer the agitations and even reverses of such a republic to the tranquillity and the triumphs of the most splendid monarchy?

It has been frequently and justly observed, that the Italian republics of the middle ages bore a striking resemblance to the commonwealths of Greece, and to this observation it may be

added that Florence had a strong similarity to Athens, a similarity not in government only and temper, but in genius and talents. Thus as in Athens so in Florence, that genius seemed struck out by the collision of parties and the shock of war; and as Euripides and Sophocles rose in the heat of the Peloponnesian, so Dante and Bocaccio sprung up amid the sanguinary broils of the Ghibelline contest. And again, as Demosthenes and Eschines, animated the decline of Athens, and cheered her once more with the language of liberty before she received the Macedonian yoke; so Florence ere she sunk into slavery, gave as a last bequest to liberty and literature, the works of Guicciardini and Machiavelli.

In the interval, the perpetual struggle between rival parties, and the vicissitudes that followed each other so rapidly kept the powers of the mind in continual action, and adapted them to excellence in every pursuit. Hence poets and statesmen, architects and painters, all of high merit and corresponding fame, rose in succession, and gave Florence, while free, the reputation which she scarcely forfeited when enslaved, of being the seat of the sciences, and the mother and nurse of the Tuscan muse. The struggles which raged in the meantime in her bosom, and the wars which she carried on abroad, seem again like the wars and quarrels of ancient Greece, to have been no obstacle to her prosperity; and as Athens and Lacedæmon were never so rich or so populous as when engaged in mutual debates, so Florence, Pisa, and Sienna never contained more inhabitants or displayed greater resources than when warring upon each other, and marching hostile legions to each other's gates. This remark, applicable to the other Italian republics of the same pe

riod, and indeed to those of both ancient Greece and Italy, proves that the agitations of a commonwealth are neither so dangerous to public happiness nor so destructive of private felicity, as the advocates of monarchy wish to persuade the world. The truth is, that tide of prosperity which has left so many traces behind, not only in the cities which I have just mentioned, but in almost every town in the northern parts of Italy, such as Mantua, Cremona, Vicentia, and Verona, was the effect of republican industry; and most of the stately edifices which still adorn these cities, whether public or private, sacred or profane, were raised by republican taste and munificence.

I speak not here of Rome; that city destined, it seems, to eternal greatness, owes her splendor to another cause more active perhaps than even the spirit of liberty, and doubtless more sublime; but the capitals to which I allude still exhibit the monuments of the opulence and public spirit of their ancestors as their noblest decorations, which, while they stand like so many trophies of liberty, show to the world how much popular surpasses monarchical government,

Among fallen republics, the fate of Florence seems peculiar; the loss of her liberty not only added not to her splendor, nor augmented her fame or territory; it did not even increase the prosperity of the family that usurped the government, or cast any additional lustre round the Medicean name. While Florence was free and the Medici only its first citizens, she paida most honorable tribute to their superior merit by a voluntary deference to their counsels, a tribute which ambition, if it knew its own interests, would prefer to forced homage and extorted allegiance.

The first merchant princes of this family, wisely content with the ascendency which the affection and gratitude of their country gave them, blended the policy of the statesman, the disinterestedness of the patriot, and the munificence of the sovereign, with the economy of traders, and the affability, ease, and simplicity of citizens. Such was the effect of these virtues, set of at the same time by learning and discernment, that history presents few great men to our observation more worthy of our esteem, and admiration than Cosmo and Lorenzo di Medici. The title of Pater Patriæ, first justly bestowed by Roman gratitude upon Cicero, and since that period so often prostituted by the prodigality of courtly flattery, and the vanity of weak, and even vicious despots, was here once more conferred by the judicious affection of a whole city on a generous and deserving magistrate.

But though the liberty of Florence and the glory of the Medicean family survived Lorenzo, yet they began from the fatal period of his death to decline, till one of his descendants, decorated with the empty title of Duke*, resigned the nobler appellation of the first citizen and father of his country, and usurped by force that government which the gratitude and veneration of his countrymen had deposited with generous confidence in the hands of his ancestors. Long might he have retained, unenvied and even applauded, the same honorable sway. But

Concessa pudet ire viâ civemque videri.

Lucan 11.

A title conferred by the Emperor, and supported by a regiment

* 1535.

of guards, was in Alexander di Medici's estimation preferable to one founded on his own virtues and the love of his country. From this inauspicious period the Medici, no longer the patrons of the arts and sciences, were lost in the common herd of petty despots, and like them whiled away their days in intrigue, debauchery, and obscurity. Under their leaden sway the commerce of Florence died away, the genius of the Tuscans languished, and want and misery spread over the fertile plains of Etruria.

The fate of Florence is a lesson held out to all free governments, to guard them not only against the ambition and power, but even against the virtues and popularity of their rulers. The latter without doubt are the more dangerous. Avowed ambition or pride ill-dissembled excite hatred, and justify opposition; while benevolence and affability engage the affections, and disarm resistance. Hence it would perhaps have been fortunate for Rome if her first tyrant, instead of Augustus had been Nero, and it is perhaps for the same reason advantageous to the cause of liberty that the chief magistrate in a free state should not be of a character too popular and engaging.

Florence is now under the government of the Prince of Parma, most unjustly expelled by the French from his own territory, and reluctantly decorated with the mock title of King of Etruria. How long he may be permitted to enjoy even this shadowy and precarious honor it is difficult to determine; but if the French were inclined to respect a title of their own creation and leave him in quiet possession, yet a weak constitution and a heart broken by disaster, will ere long bring his reign to a premature termination. He is naturally a prince of a mild and benevolent