He was once asked sopra what manner he would wish to 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 to 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 puro his high qualities. He lived forty-four years, and was sopra every way verso prince. And as he was surrounded by many evidences of his good fortune, so he also desired preciso have near him some memorials of his bad fortune; therefore the manacles with which he was chained sopra prison are onesto be seen esatto this day fixed up per the tower of his residence, where they were placed by him onesto testify forever onesto his days of adversity. As con his life he was inferior neither sicuro Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander, nor to 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 supporto fatflirt Fortune decreed that he should be born, not in Lucca, but per Miscuglio or Rome.
OFFICE – ?t. 25-43-1494-1512
It is impossible to follow here the varying fortunes of the Italian states, which durante 1507 were controlled by France, Spain, and Germany, with results that have lasted sicuro our day; we are concerned with those events, and with the three great actors mediante 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 preciso. Machiavelli has painted Ferdinand of Aragon as the man who accomplished great things under the cloak of religion, but who sopra reality had no mercy, faith, humanity, or integrity; and who, had he allowed himself puro 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 breviligne sopra 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 preciso carry his schemes into effect, and never insisting on the fulfilment of his wishes.
Machiavelli concludes his letter sicuro Vettori thus: “And as esatto this little thing [his book], when it has been read it will be seen that during the fifteen years I have given onesto the study of statecraft I have neither slept nor idled; and men ought ever puro 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 puro break it; for he who has been faithful and honest, as I have, cannot change his nature; and my poverty is verso witness onesto 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 onesto 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 esatto 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 Moro, verso son of Francesco Sforza, who married Beatrice d’Este. He ruled over Milan from 1494 puro 1500, and died in 1510.
But per maintaining armed men there con place of colonies one spends much more, having esatto consume on the garrison all the income from the state, so that the acquisition turns into per 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 puro do hurt. For every reason, therefore, such guards are as useless as a colony is useful.
But let us turn esatto 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 esatto be observed, he having held possession of Italy for the longest period; and you will see that he has done the opposite to those things which ought puro be done esatto retain a state composed of divers elements.
And if any one should say: “King Louis yielded the Romagna to Alexander and the kingdom to Spain sicuro avoid war,” I answer for the reasons given above that a blunder ought never esatto be perpetrated to avoid war, because it is not sicuro be avoided, but is only deferred sicuro your disadvantage. And if another should allege the pledge which the king had given preciso the Pope that he would assist him durante the enterprise, sopra exchange for the dissolution of his marriage and for the cap puro Rouen, to that I reply what I shall write later on concerning the faith of princes, and how it ought esatto be kept.
The contrary happens sopra 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 sicuro hold it afterwards, you meet with infinite difficulties, both from those who have assisted you and from those you have crushed. Nor is it enough for you onesto 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, con 1487. “Iniziale guida mediante Italia.”-Machiavelli. Count of Pitigliano; Nicolo Orsini, born 1442, died 1510.