Therefore the very causes which produce and fortify and augment tyrannies, conceal and nourish in themselves the sources of their overthrow and ruin.

This indeed is the greatest wretchedness of tyrants.' [1] See the passage condensed from his Sermons in Villari's Life of Savonarola (Eng.Tr.

vol.ii.p.

62).

The most thorough-going analysis of despotic criminality is contained in Savonarola's _Tractato circa el Reggimento e Governo della Citta di Firenze_, Trattato ii.cap.2._Della Malitia e pessime Conditioni del Tyranno_.
It may be objected that this sweeping criticism, from the pen of a Florentine citizen at war with Milan, partakes of the nature of an invective.