Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/793

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MACHIAVELLI VII. a firm friend, and was afterward em- ployed in many important negotiations. His last employment was in the army of the league against Charles V., after which, returning to Florence, he was seized with violent pains in the stomach, and soon died. His body was interred in Santa Croce, where two centuries afterward an English nobleman, Earl Cowper, erected a monument to his memory. Of the writings of Machiavelli, the most celebrated is the treatise commonly called H principe, "The Prince," which was written about 1514 and printed in 1532. This work, until recently, was almost universally condemned as designed to teach the vilest arts of despotism, and to pre- sent as a model sovereign of an absolute state the perfidious and ferocious Borgia. Scarcely any book of ancient or modern times has been so violently assailed or has excited so much discussion and controversy. The terms in which its author was commonly described, says Mac- aulay, "would seem to import that he was the tempter, the evil principle, the discoverer of ambition and revenge, the original inven- tor of perjury ; that before the publication of his fatal ' Prince ' there had never been a hypo- crite, a tyrant, or a traitor, a simulated vir- tue, or a convenient crime." The researches of modern Italian scholars, and a better con- sideration of the political state of Italy in the 15th century, have at length established the true object of "The Prince," and vindicated in some measure the name of its author from the opprobrium heaped upon it. The work is a scientific account of the art of acquiring and preserving despotic power, and is a calm, un- varnished, and forcible exposition of the means by which tyranny may be established and sus- tained. If it be a guide to princes desiring to become despotic, it is also, as Machiavelli him- self remarked, a guide to the people who wish to destroy tyrants. It weakens despotism by exposing its most subtle secrets. At the same time it exhibits an obliquity of moral principle on the part of its author, so far as political matters are concerned, which can only be pal- liated by alleging that dissimulation and treach- ery were universally looked upon in Italy, and indeed throughout Europe in his day, as legiti- mate political weapons. About a year after the composition of " The Prince " Machiavelli wrote " Discourses on the First Decade of Livy, " divided into three books. He also wrote a "History of Florence" (Istorie fiorintine), a work greatly admired for its style, several poems of no great merit, and three or four comedies, of which the best is "The Man- dragola," which was acted in Florence with great success. The fullest and best edition of the works of Machiavelli was published at Florence in 1813, in 8 vols. 8vo. The " His- tory of Florence," "The Prince," and vari- ous historical tracts, are in Bohn's " Standard Library" (1 vol., London, 1847). Several of the writings of Machiavelli were early trans- lated in England (1560-1600). All his works MoINTOSH 787 were translated into English by Ellis Fame- worth (2 vols. 4to, 1761, and 4 vols. 8vo, 1775). See Perils, Hiatoire de N. Hactiiavel (Paris, 1823), and Artaud de Montor, Machiavel, son genie et ses erreurs (2 vols., 1833). MACHINE, and Machinery. See MECHANICS. MACIEJOWSKI, Wadaw Alexander, a Polish historian, born in 1792. He completed his studies in Germany, and was professor of Ro- man law in the university of Warsaw from 1819 till its suppression in 1831. He subsequently taught ancient literature in the Catholic acad- emy, and Roman law in the gymnasium. His principal works are : Eistorya prawodawstw stowianskich (" History of Slavic Jurispru- dence," 4 vols., Warsaw, 1832-'5 ; German translation, Stuttgart, 1835-'9); and Pami$- tniki o dziejach, pismiennictwie i prawodaws- twie stowian, relating to Slavic history, litera- ture, and jurisprudence (2 vols., 1839). McILVAINE, Charles Pettit, an American bish- op, born in Burlington, 1ST. J., Jan. 18, 1798, died in Florence, Italy, March 12, 1873. He graduated at Princeton college in 1816, was admitted/ to orders in 1820, and labored for two or three years in Christ's church, George- town, D. C. In 1825 he was appointed profes- sor of ethics and chaplain in the military acad- emy, West Point, and in 1827 became rector of St. Ann's church, Brooklyn, N. Y. He was chosen in 1831 professor of the evidences of revealed religion and sacred antiquities in the university of the city of New York, and de- livered a valuable course of lectures, which were subsequently published. He was in the following year elected bishop of Ohio, and was consecrated Oct. 31, 1832. As head of Kenyon college and of the theological seminary in his diocese, as well as by his zeal and activity in the discharge of his episcopal duties, he exer- cised a large and powerful influence in the Epis- copal church. In 1853 he received the degree of D. C. L. from the university of Oxford, and in 1858 that of LL. D. from the university of Cambridge. He was a member of the sanitary commission during the civil war, and did the country service on a visit to Europe in set- ting forth right views of the questions at issue. He was also present at the " Pan- Anglican " council in London in 1867. Failure of health induced him to visit Europe again just before his death. His principal publications were : "Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity" (1832), which has passed through 30 editions; " Oxford Divinity compared with that of the Roman and Anglican Churches " (1841) ; " The Holy Catholic Church" (1844); "No Priest, no Altar, no Sacrifice but Christ," and " Rea- sons for refusing to consecrate a Church hav- ing an Altar" (1846); "The Truth and the Life," 22 discourses, published at the request of the convention of Ohio (1850) ; and " Right- eousness by Faith " (1864). He edited " Select Family and Parish Sermons" (2 vols., 1839). McIJVTOSH, a S. E. county of Georgia, bound- ed S. E. by the Atlantic ocean, and S. W. by