The Politiques, no less than Machiavelli, are, on the whole,
thoroughgoing realists with considerable vision, at least in
terms of the needs of the immediate future. They are also
sceptics, in the sense that they have abandoned the intense medi-
eval conviction that earthly life was only a preparation for a
world to come and that everything must be sacrificed for this
end. They reveal clearly the degree to which nationalism had
triumphed, the influence of the expansion of Europe and of
the growth of opportunities for acquiring wealth, and the ac-
ceptance of mercantilist doctrine that accompanied that devel-
opment. But above all, in them may be seen the spreading of
the humanistic leaven of the Renaissance which had led men to
lower their eyes from Heaven and to investigate their imme-
diate environment.

Part III of Allen's work is entirely devoted to the French thought
of this period, and presents a detailed account of the development of
theories and their relation to the changing fortunes of the different
parties involved. In Chapters V and VI of Murray there may also
be found material on the topics here covered, as well as on others
dealt with in later chapters. Lectures IV and V in Figgis are par-
ticularly good on this material, giving as they do a thorough examin-
ation of the issues involved, as well as discussing underlying political
conditions. H. J. Laski introduction to his edition of the Vin-
diciae, under the title A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants is also
to be thoroughly recommended, though, since it assumes consider-
able familiarity with the subject on the student's part, it should not
be read as a first introduction to the subject.

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