of wine and corn; so to distribute the taxes that the people can
recognize their necessity; he is to support the sick and the helpless,
and to give his protection and society to distinguished scholars, on
whom his fame in after ages will depend.

But whatever might be the brighter sides of the system, and the merits
of individual rulers, yet the men of the fourteenth century were not
without a more or less distinct consciousness of the brief and
uncertain tenure of most of these despotisms. Inasmuch as political
institutions like these are naturally secure in proportion to the size
of the territory in which they exist, the larger principalities were
constantly tempted to swallow up the smaller. Whole hecatombs of petty
rulers were sacrificed at this time to the Visconti alone. As a result
of this outward danger an inward ferment was in ceaseless activity; and
the effect of the situation on the character of the ruler was generally
of the most sinister kind. Absolute power, with its temptations to
luxury and unbridled selfishness, and the perils to which he was
exposed from enemies and conspirators, turned him almost inevitably
into a tyrant in the worst sense of the word. Well for him if he could
trust his nearest relations! But where all was illegitimate, there
could be no regular law of inheritance, either with regard to the
succession or to the division of the ruler's property; and consequently
the heir, if incompetent or a minor, was liable in the interest of the
family itself to be supplanted by an uncle or cousin of more resolute
character. The acknowledgment or exclusion of the bastards was a
fruitful source of contest and most of these families in consequence
were plagued with a crowd of discontented and vindictive kinsmen. This
circumstance gave rise to continual outbreaks of treason and to
frightful scenes of domestic bloodshed. Sometimes the pretenders lived
abroad in exile, like the Visconti, who practiced the fisherman's craft