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Book Review: Political Philosophy Cross-Examined1 7 7(112). With this recognition, we ask: who are the ancient men with whomMachiavelli converses in the famous letter to Vettori? Are they those whoacted, or those who wrote? The writer provides the model to be imitated, andtherefore is the true educator of princes: “Machiavelli knows that the writershave made these men and only they can answer his questions and that theirwritings are their actions.” Machiavelli, then, is a philosophic author, a writer“who desires or is compelled both to reason without deference to authorityand to advise princes or conspire against them” (114).In “Of Human Ends in Bacon’s Essayes,” Ralph Lerner discusses Bacon’sintention, and does not claim to uncover “Bacon’s presumed grand design,”but instead offers some suggestions as to how it appears from a certainpoint of view (119). He suggests the first and last of Bacon’s Essayes indicatetwo audiences in addition to the general run of readers: lovers of truth andpolitical men (either rulers, rulers of the rulers, or would-be rulers). Baconaddresses himself to the lies that we often believe, but does not want to robmen of comforting illusions with nothing to replace them. Bacon intends toreplace unwarranted hopes with “hopes only partly unwarranted, becausethey are partly grounded in an observable, verifiable world; hopes that havesome rational basis” (124). Bacon offers the possibility—made explicit in theCartesian project—of conquering nature for the sake of the improvement ofman’s earthly condition. This theme is continued in Bacon’s final essay: itmoves from managing nature to managing changes wrought by religion orviolence. In these last two instances Bacon counsels temporizing with prophetsand suggests that all states have life cycles. Nonetheless, Bacon turns fromsuch sober-minded consideration of the limited capacity of men to influenceevents by noting that excessive consideration of such things proves detrimental.Bacon aims to liberate us from unease by solving—or promising tosolve—“riddles about the nature of things and…the nature of man” (132).Bacon’s program could not be brought about without his political as well asphilosophic acumen: he knew that it was not enough to offer a new teaching;he must undermine the old teachings and attract followers to his banner.Devin Stauffer’s essay is one of the gems of this excellent collection:clear, articulate, and provocative. He focuses on Hobbes’s natural rather thanrevealed theology, arguing that just as his revealed theology functions as acritique of scripture, his natural theology has a critical purpose. Hobbes’snatural theology is a variant of the argument from the first cause; his version(perhaps more honestly than others’) culminates in a God that sits at the