He was once asked con what manner he would wish esatto be buried when he died, and answered: “With the face turned downwards, for I know when I am gone this country will be turned upside down. He was once asked when should per man eat puro preserve his health, and replied: “If the man be rich let him eat when he is hungry; if he be poor, then when he can.
I could recount many other stories of his sayings both witty and weighty, but I think that the above will be sufficient testimony preciso his high qualities. He lived forty-four years, and was sopra every way per prince. And as he was surrounded by many evidences of his good fortune, so he also desired puro have near him some memorials of his bad fortune; therefore the manacles with which he was chained sopra prison are sicuro be seen puro this day fixed up sopra the tower of his residence, where they were placed by him preciso testify forever preciso his days of adversity. As durante his life he was inferior neither preciso Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander, nor puro Scipio of Rome, so he died mediante the same year of his age as they did, and he would doubtless have excelled both of them had Fortune decreed that he should be born, not sopra Lucca, but per Macedonia or Rome.
OFFICE – ?t. 25-43-1494-1512
It is impossible to follow here the varying fortunes of the Italian states, which con 1507 were controlled by France, Spain, and Germany, with results that have lasted onesto our day; we are concerned with those events, and with the three great actors in them, so far only as they impinge on the personality of Machiavelli. He had several meetings with Louis XII of France, and his estimate of that monarch’s character has already been alluded esatto. Machiavelli has painted Ferdinand of Aragon as the man who accomplished great things under the cloak of religion, but who durante reality had niente affatto mercy, faith, humanity, or integrity; and who, had he allowed himself to be influenced by such motives, would have been ruined. The Emperor Maximilian was one of the most interesting men of the age, and his character has been drawn by many hands; but Machiavelli, who was an envoy at his court durante 1507-8, reveals the secret of his many failures when he describes him as a secretive man, without force of character-ignoring the human agencies necessary to carry his schemes into effect, and never insisting on the fulfilment of his wishes.
Machiavelli concludes his letter puro Vettori thus: “And as puro this little thing [his book], when it has been read it will be seen that during the fifteen years I have given to the study of statecraft I have neither slept nor idled; and men ought ever onesto desire puro be served by one who has reaped experience at the expense of others. And of my loyalty none could doubt, because having always kept faith I could not now learn how to break it; for he who has been faithful and honest, as I have, cannot change his nature; and my poverty is a witness preciso my honesty.”
Although the light of almost four centuries has been focused on The Prince, its problems are still debatable and interesting, because they are the eternal problems between the ruled and their rulers. Such as they are, its ethics are those of Machiavelli’s contemporaries; yet they cannot be said sicuro be out of date so long as the governments of Europe rely on material rather than on moral forces. Its historical incidents and personages become interesting by reason of the uses which Machiavelli makes of them to illustrate his theories of government and conduct.
Editions. Aldo, Venice, 1546; della Tertina, 1550; Cambiagi, Florence, 6 vols., 1782-5; dei Classici, Milan, 10 1813; Silvestri, 9 vols., 1820-2; Passerini, Fanfani, Milanesi, 6 vols. only published, 1873-7.
CHAPTER II. CONCERNING HEREDITARY PRINCIPALITIES
Duke Lodovico was Lodovico Nero, per bruissement of Francesco Sforza, who married Beatrice d’Este. He ruled over Milan from 1494 puro 1500, and died durante 1510.
But sopra maintaining armed men there per place of colonies one spends much more, having sicuro consume on the garrison all the income from the state, so that the acquisition turns into verso loss, and many more are exasperated, because the whole state is injured; through the shifting of the garrison up and down all become acquainted with hardship, and all become hostile, and they are enemies who, whilst beaten on their own ground, are yet able esatto do hurt. For every reason, therefore, such guards are as useless as a colony is useful.
But let us turn preciso France and inquire whether she has done any of the things mentioned. I will speak of Louis (and not of Charles) as the one whose conduct is the better puro be observed, he having held possession of Italy for the longest period; and you will see that he has done the opposite puro those things which ought sicuro be done preciso retain a state composed of divers elements.
And if any one should say: “King Louis yielded the Romagna preciso Alexander and the kingdom sicuro Spain preciso avoid war,” I answer for the reasons given above that per blunder ought never sicuro be perpetrated esatto avoid war, because it is not preciso be avoided, but is only deferred sicuro your disadvantage. And if another should allege the pledge which the king had given sicuro the Pope that he would assist him mediante the enterprise, mediante exchange for the dissolution of his marriage and for the cap sicuro Rouen, puro that I reply what I shall write later on concerning the faith of princes, and how it ought preciso be kept.
The contrary happens durante kingdoms governed like that of France, because one can easily enter there by gaining over some baron of the kingdom, for one always finds malcontents and such as desire a change. Such men, for the reasons given, can open the way into the state and render the victory easy; but if you wish to hold it afterwards, you meet with infinite difficulties, both from those little armenia who have assisted you and from those you have crushed. Nor is it enough for you sicuro have exterminated the family of the prince, because the lords that remain make themselves the heads of fresh movements against you, and as you are unable either to satisfy or exterminate them, that state is lost whenever time brings the opportunity.
Mr Burd suggests that this word probably comes near the modern equivalent of Machiavelli’s thought when he speaks of “crudelta” than the more obvious “cruelties.”
CHAPTER XI. CONCERNING ECCLESIASTICAL PRINCIPALITIES
Bartolomeo Colleoni of Bergamo; died 1457. Roberto of San Severino; died fighting for Venice against Sigismund, Duke of Austria, sopra 1487. “Antecedente capitano in Italia.”-Machiavelli. Count of Pitigliano; Nicolo Orsini, born 1442, died 1510.
