history of his own time, he was so obsessed with the desire to imitate
the ancient Romans that he hardly mentioned the {580} religious
controversy at all. One sarcasm on the priests who thought the _New_
Testament was written by Luther, and demanded their good Old Testament
back again, two brief allusions to Knox, and a few other passing
references are all of the Reformation that comes into a bulky volume
dealing with the reigns of James V and Mary Stuart. His interest in
political liberty, his conception of the struggle as one between
tyranny and freedom, might appear modern were it not so plainly rooted
in antique soil.

The prevailing vice of the humanists--to see in the story of a people
nothing but a political lesson--is carried to its extreme by
Machiavelli. [Sidenote: Machiavelli] Writing with all the charm that
conquers time, this theorist altered facts to suit his thesis to the
point of composing historical romances. His _Life of Castruccio_ is as
fictitious and as didactic as Xenophon's _Cyropaedia_; his _Commentary
on Livy_ is as much a treatise on politics as is _The Prince_; the
_History of Florence_ is but slightly hampered by the events.

[Sidenote: Guicciardini]

If Guicciardini's interest in politics is not less exclusive than that
of his compatriot, he is vastly superior as a historian to the older
man in that, whereas Machiavelli deduced history _a priori_ from
theory, Guicciardini had a real desire to follow the inductive method
of deriving his theory from an accurate mastery of the facts. With
superb analytical reasoning he presents his data, marshals them and
draws from them the conclusions they will bear. The limitation that
vitiates many of his deductions is his taking into account only low and
selfish motives. Before idealists he stands helpless; he leaves the
reader uncertain whether Savonarola was a prophet or an extremely
astute politician.

[Sidenote: Jovius]

The advance that Paul Jovius marks over the Florentines lies in the
appeal that he made to the {581} interests of the general public.
History had hitherto been written for the greater glory of a patron or
at most of a city; Jovius saw that the most generous patron of genius
must henceforth be the average reader. It is true that he despised the
public for whom he wrote, stuffing them with silly anecdotes. Both as
the first great interviewer and reporter for the history of his own
times, and in paying homage to Mrs. Grund