rare in history. But those who study the records of ancient
times will understand, that after a change in the form of a government,
whether it be from a commonwealth to a tyranny or from a tyranny to a
commonwealth, those who are hostile to the new order of things must
always be visited with signal punishment. So that he who sets up as a
tyrant and slays not Brutus, and he who creates a free government and
slays not the sons of Brutus, can never maintain himself long. But since
I have elsewhere treated of this matter at large, I shall merely refer
to what has there been said concerning it, and shall cite here one
instance only, happening in our own days, and memorable in the history
of our country.

I speak of Piero Soderini, who thought by his patience and goodness
to overcome the very same temper which prompted the sons of Brutus to
revert to the old government, and who failed in the endeavour. For
although his sagacity should have taught him the necessity, while chance
and the ambition of those who attacked him furnished him with the
opportunity of making an end of them, he never could resolve to strike
the blow; and not merely believed himself able to subdue disaffection by
patience and kindness, and to mitigate the enmity of particular men by
the rewards he held out to them, but also persuaded himself, and often
declared in the presence of his friends, that he could not confront
opposition openly, nor crush his adversaries, without assuming
extraordinary powers and passing laws destructive of civil equality;
which measures, although not afterward used by him for tyrannical ends,
would so alarm the community, that after his death they would never
again consent to appoint a Gonfalonier for life, an office which he
judged it essential both to maintain and strengthen. Now although these
scruples of his were wise and good, we ought never out of regard for
what is good, to suffer an evil to run its course, since it may well
happen that the evil will prevail over the good. And Piero should have
believed that as his acts and intentions were to be judged by results,
he might, if he lived and if fortune befriended him, have made it clear
to all, that what he did was done to preserve his country, and not
from personal ambition; and he might have so contrived matters that no
successor of his could ever turn to bad ends the means which he had used
for good ends. But he was misled by a preconceived opinion, and failed
to underst