BOOK II PART II
less, than when viewed apart.
From the same principle we may account
for that remark of historians, that any party
in a civil war always choose to call in a for-
eign enemy at any hazard rather than submit to
their fellow-citizens. Guicciardin applies this
remark to the wars in Italy, where the relations
betwixt the different states are, properly speak-
ing, nothing but of name, language, and con-
tiguity. Yet even these relations, when joined
with superiority, by making the comparison
more natural, make it likewise more grievous,
and cause men to search for some other superi-
ority, which may be attended with no relation,
and by that means may have a less sensible in-
fluence on the imagination. The mind quickly
perceives its several advantages and disadvan-
tages; and finding its situation to be most un-