Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith. But it gave an immense impulse to absolutism by silencing the consciences of very religious kings, and made the good and the bad very much alike.

Writers the most learned, the most accurate in details, and the soundest in tendency, frequently fall into a habit which can neither be cured nor pardoned - th…

I am not thinking of those shining precepts which are the registered property of every school; that is to say - learn as much by writing as by reading; be not …

Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.