It is unfortunately too mutilated to be wholly intelligible.

After explaining his desire to be of use to Florence, but not after the manner most approved of by the Florentines themselves, he says: 'io credo che questo sarebbe il vero modo di andare in Paradiso, imparare la via dell' Inferno per fuggirla.' The _Principe_, after its dedication to Lorenzo, remained in MS., and Machiavelli was not employed in spite of the continual solicitations of his friend Vettori.[1] Nothing remained for him but to seek other patrons, and to employ his leisure in new literary work.

Between 1516 and 1519, therefore, we find him taking part in the literary and philosophical discussions of the Florentine Academy, which assembled at that period in the Rucellai Gardens.[2] It was here that he read his Discourses on the First Decade of Livy--a series of profound essays upon the administration of the state, to which the sentences of the Roman historian serve as texts.

Having set forth in the _Principe_ the method of gaining or maintaining sovereign power, he shows in the _Discorsi_ what institutions are necessary to preserve the body politic in a condition of vigorous activity.

We may therefore regard the _Discorsi_ as in some sense a continuation of the _Principe_.