allies, was strong enough to hinder national unity in the future, but
not strong enough itself to bring about that unity. Between the two lay
a multitude of political units--republics and despots--in part of long
standing, in part of recent origin, whose existence was founded simply
on their power to maintain it. In them for the first time we detect the
modern political spirit of Europe, surrendered freely to its own
instincts. Often displaying the worst features of an unbridled egotism,
outraging every right, and killing every germ of a healthier culture.
But, wherever this vicious tendency is overcome or in any way
compensated, a new fact appears in history--the State as the outcome of
reflection and calculation, the State as a work of art. This new life
displays itself in a hundred forms, both in the republican and in the
despotic States, and determines their inward constitution, no less than
their foreign policy. We shall limit ourselves to the consideration of
the completer and more clearly defined type, which is offered by the
despotic States.

The internal condition of the despotically governed States had a
memorable counterpart in the Norman Empire of Lower Italy and Sicily,
after its transformation by the Emperor Frederick Il. Bred amid treason
and peril in the neighbourhood of the Saracens, Frederick, the first
ruler of the modern type who sat upon a throne, had early accustomed
himself to a thoroughly objective treatment of affairs. His
acquaintance with the internal condition and administration of the
Saracenic States was close and intimate; and the mortal struggle in
which he was engaged with the Papacy compelled him, no less than his
adversaries, to bring into the field all the resources at his command.
Frederick's measures (especially after the year 1231) are aimed at the
complete destruction of the feudal State, at the transformation of the
people into a multitude destitute of will and of the means of