Page:The Prince.djvu/52

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INTRODUCTION.
xxxiii

between wisdom and imbecility, between energy and sloth: hence it must have been wonderful indeed had the result been different.

I am well aware, that many will censure me, for what they conceive, holding up to admiration the enemy of my country: this censure, however, can only arise from our different views of patriotism; mine aspires beyond the ephemeral considerations of party and popular opinion, and looks to the permanent well-being of my country, which, with bitterness of soul, I see convulsed by the struggles of party, and groaning under the burthen of domestic woes at the awful moment when her inveterate. enemy, rich in the science of antiquity, great in himself, and still greater in the host of intellect with which he is surrounded, contemplates her ruin; who, then, can behold these powers conjoined and directed to one common object, the ruin of his country, without shuddering for her fate, and imploring heaven to breathe wisdom and una-