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EARLY CRITICISM OF 'THE PRINCE.' 63
The most vigorous of the early apologies for Machiavelli was,
however, supplied some years previously in a book written by
Alberico Gentili, who though an Italian by birth 1 spent the
larger portion of his life in England, and was created Regius
Professor of Civil law at Oxford only two years after the appearance
of the work in which he took up _en passant' the
cause of Machiavelli. The value of his writings, as important
contributions to the study of international law -_,which he attempted
to found on a non-theological basis, is now generally
acknowledged, though Hugo Grotius still continues in some
quarters to usurp the position which of right belongs to Gentili ;
and it is well worth our while to consider carefully what so
shrewd and able a man had to say on the subject of Machiavelli.
In the ninth chapter of the third book 'de Legationibus,' he
sums up his opinion in a passage remarkable for independence
of judgment, and a certain degree of real enthusiasm for Machiavelli.
The title of the chapter in which it occurs is 'Quatenus
philosophia legatum deceat _.'
'Nec vero,' he writes, 'in negotio lsto [in history] verebor
omnium praestantissimum dicere et ad imitandum proponere
Machiavellum, eiusque plane aureas in Livium Observationes.
Quod namque hominem indoetissimum esse volunt, et scaelestissimum,
id nihil ad me, qui prudentiam ejus singularem laudo,
nec impietatem aut improbitatem, si qua est, tueor. Quamquam
si librum editum adversus illum 4 considero ; si Machiavelli
conditionem respicio, si propositum scribendi suum recte censeo ;
si etiam meliori interpretatione volo dicta ejus adjuvare, non
equidem video cur et iis crilninibus mortui hominis fama liberari
non possit. Qui in illum scripsit, illum non intellexit, nec non
in multis calumniatus est : Et talis omnino est, qui miseratione
dignissimus est. Machiavellus Democratiae laudator et assertor
acerrimus ; natus, educatus, honoratus in eo reipublicae statu ;
tyrannidis summ6 inimicus. Itaque tyranno non favet: sui
propositi non est, tyrannurn instruere, sed arcanis ejus palam
factis ipsum miseris populis nudum et conspicuum exhibere.
1 Born at San Gineslo, near .Ancona, in 155° : died in England_ I6o8 : the work
in question bears the title ' De legatlonibus hbrl tres.' It was published at
London in ISg 5.
= See especially Holland's edition of his ' De jure bclh,' pubhshed by the
Clarendon Press.
3 Cf Op cir. p. Ioi. 4 GentiIlet's book.