Amid all these preparations outwardly to win and secure fame, the
curtain is now and then drawn aside, and we see with frightful evidence
a boundless ambition and thirst after greatness, regardless of all
means and consequences. Thus, in the preface to Machiavelli's
Florentine history, in which he blames his predecessors Leonardo,
Aretino and Poggio for their too considerate reticence with regard to
the political parties in the city: 'They erred greatly and showed that
they understood little the ambition of men and the desire to perpetuate
a name. How many who could distinguish themselves by nothing
praiseworthy, strove to do so by infamous deeds! ' Those writers did
not consider that actions which are great in themselves, as is the case
with the actions of rulers and of States, always seem to bring more
glory than blame, of whatever kind they are and whatever the result of
them may be. In more than one remarkable and dreadful undertaking the
motive assigned by serious writers is the burning desire to achieve
something great and memorable. This motive is not a mere extreme case
of ordinary vanity, but something demonic, involving a surrender of the
will, the use of any means, however atrocious, and even an indifference
to success itself. In this sense, for example, Machiavelli conceives
the character of Stefano Porcari; of the murderers of Galeazzo Maria
Sforza (1476), the documents tell us about the same; and the
assassination of Duke Alessandro of Florence (1537) is ascribed by
Varchi himself to the thirst for fame which tormented the murderer
Lorenzino Medici.
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