henry frowde oxford university press warehouse amen corner, ec

378 IL PRINCIPE.
and 'virtfl,' and to have wondered a little at his strange influ-
ence over so shrewd a people as the Florentines. As a politician
he regarded him as mistaken in two great points : first, he misunderstood
the situation, and while preaching 'Union, union,'
was himself an apple of discord ; secondly, he did not recognise
the necessity of establishing a national militia, and thus placing
the city in a position to free herself from foreign intervention.
So far, of course, Machiavelli was unfair : the edge of his mind
was very sharp, but it only cut one way; and his opinions are of
interest for us now, not because the), throw any new light upon
what Savonarola really was, but because they help to show us
more clearly and more completely what Machiavelli was not.