Lehal Library

Tuscany and Naples, who will clean up the sores that have festered too long. You can see the country is praying God to send someone to save her from the cruelty and barbarity of these foreigners. You can see she is ready and willing to march beneath a flag, if only someone would raise one up. What I can’t see is any family the country could put its faith in right now if not your illustrious house,* blessed as it is with fine qualities and fortune, favoured by God and the Church – actually running the Church, in fact – and hence well placed to lead Italy to redemption. And if you keep in mind the lives and achievements of the men I’ve written about, then the project won’t be too difficult. It’s true they were rare men, remarkable men, but nevertheless they were still men, and none of them had a better opportunity than you have now. The things they did had no greater justification, nor were they any easier; God was no kinder to them than he has been to you. Justice is defi- nitely on our side because ‘war is just when there’s no alterna- tive and arms are sacred when they are your only hope.’ The situation is more than favourable, and when circumstances are favourable things can’t be too hard; all you have to do is take the men I’ve proposed as your models. What’s more, God has shown us amazing, unprecedented signs: the sea parted; a cloud led the way for you; stone has gushed water; manna has rained on us from heaven; everything has worked together to make you great. The rest is up to you. God doesn’t like doing everything himself, he doesn’t want to deprive us of our free will and our share of glory. It’s no surprise if none of the Italians I’ve spoken about have been able to do what I believe your family can do, or again if all our recent wars and revolutions have given the impression that the country has lost its capacity to fight. This is because the old states were badly organized and no one knew how to improve things. Nothing brings more honour * Machiavelli is addressing Lorenzo de’ Medici.