It is
possible that if Machiavelli had had the experience of the centuries
which have elapsed since his day, he would have seen fit to alter his
conclusion, and it is to be regretted that the admiration which Mr.
Carlyle feels for the great men of history will not allow him to
believe in the possibility of a political society where each might
find his proper sphere and duty without disturbing the order and
natural succession of the commonwealth. His judgment on this point
is like that of a man who had only known the steam-engine before
the invention of governor balls, and was ready to declare that its
mechanism would be shattered if a boy were not always at hand to
regulate the pressure of the steam.
* * * * *
"We may turn, however, from this difference to another of Mr.
Carlyle's doctrines, which mark at once his independence of thought
and his respect for experience, where he declares the necessity for
recognising the hereditary principle in government, if there is to be
'any fixity in things.
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