republic.

In connection with this league against Rome we have first to note, that
when a mischief which springs up either in or against a republic, and
whether occasioned by internal or external causes, has grown to such
proportions that it begins to fill the whole community with alarm, it is
a far safer course to temporize with it than to attempt to quell it by
violence. For commonly those who make this attempt only add fuel to the
flame, and hasten the impending ruin. Such disorders arise in a republic
more often from internal causes than external, either through some
citizen being suffered to acquire undue influence, or from the
corruption of some institution of that republic, which had once been the
life and sinew of its freedom; and from this corruption being allowed to
gain such head that the attempt to check it is more dangerous than to
let it be. And it is all the harder to recognize these disorders in
their beginning, because it seems natural to men to look with favour on
the beginnings of things. Favour of this sort, more than by anything
else, is attracted by those actions which seem to have in them a quality
of greatness, or which are performed by the young. For when in a
republic some young man is seen to come forward endowed with rare
excellence, the eyes of all the citizens are at once turned upon him,
and all, without distinction, concur to do him honour; so that if he
have one spark of ambition, the advantages which he has from nature,
together with those he takes from this favourable disposition of men's
minds, raise him to such a pitch of power, that when the citizens at
last see their mistake it is almost impossible for them to correct it;
and when they do what they can to oppose his influence the only result
is to extend it. Of this I might cite numerous examples, but shall
content myself with one relating to our own city.

Cosimo de' Medici, to whom the house of the Medici in Florence owes
the origin of its fortunes, acquired so great a name from the favour
wherewith his own prudence and the blindness of others invested him,
that coming to be held in awe by the government, his fellow-citizens
deemed it dangerous to offend him, but still more dangerous to let him
alone. Nicolo da Uzzano, his cotemporary, who was accounted well versed
in all civil affairs, but who had made a first mistake in not discerning
the dangers which might grow from the rising influence of Cosimo, would
never while he lived,