Yet in these writings we find Guicciardini at his best.

Here he has not yet assumed the mantle of the rhetorician, which in the _Istoria d' Italia_ sits upon him somewhat cumbrously.

His style is more spontaneous; his utterances are less guarded.

Writing for himself alone, he dares to say more plainly what he thinks and feels.

At the same time the political sagacity of the statesman is revealed in all its vigor.