Note 504 — LIBRO SECONDO. DAL RITORNO ALLA VITA PRIVATA ED AGLI STUDI SINO ALLA MORTE DEL MACHIAVELLI. (1513-1527) (continued 2)
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Il Macaulay, nel suo eloquente Saggio sul Machiavelli, osserva: «The whole man seems to be an enigma, a grotesque assemblage of incongruous qualities, selfishness and generosity, cruelty and benevolance, craft and simplicity, abject villany and romantic heroism.... An act of dexterous perfidy and an act of patriotic self-devotion call forth the same kind and the same degree of respectful admiration. The moral sensibility of the writer seems at once to be morbidly obtuse and morbidly acute. Two characters altogether dissimilar are united in him. They are not merely joined, but interwoven.» Macaulay's Essay, Leipzig, 1850, vol. I, pag. 63. Dei meriti e difetti di questo lavoro parleremo altrove.