The great Florentine
historians and statesmen never stoop to these slavish quotations, and
what seems antique in their deeds and their judgements is so because
the nature of their political life necessarily fostered in them a mode
of thought which has some analogy with that of antiquity.
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that Italy at the beginning of the
sixteenth century found itself in the midst of a grave moral crisis,
out of which the best men saw hardly any escape.
Let us begin by saying a few words about that moral force which was
then the strongest bulwark against evil. The highly gifted man of that
day thought to find it in the sentiment of honour. This is that
enigmatic mixture of conscience and egotism which often survives in the
modern man after he has lost, whether by his own fault or not, faith,
love, and hope. This sense of honour is compatible with much
selfishness and great vices, and may be the victim of astonishing
illusions; yet, nevertheless, all the noble elements that are left in
the wreck of a character may gather around it, and from this fountain
may draw new strength. It has become, in a far wider sense than is
commonly believed, a decisive test of conduct in the minds of the
cultivated Europeans of our own day, and many of those who yet hold
faithfully by religion and morality are unconsciously guided by this
feeling in the gravest decisions of their lives.
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