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EARLY CRITICISM OF 'THE PRINCE.' 6 7
critics, for though a large portion of his work is, from the
nature of the case, controversial, he has none the less attempted
throughout to apply the historical method. The book
is written in a temperate spirit, it displays considerable knowledge
of Machiavelli's work, and the author is familiar with the
larger portion of previous criticism upon Machiavelli. There
is, of course, much in it that can hardly be accepted now, but
the number of points, which often by a happy intuition and
without the aid of materials now accessible have been correctly
seized, is very great. In short, the book may be regarded as
closing the era of invective, and beginning the era of real
criticism.
To do justice to such a work within the limits of a few pages is
impossible, but one or two examples may be here given to show
how Christ dealt with his subject. Many of the apologetic interpretations
of The Prince are wisely dismissed: 'Fuere qui
nostrum,' he writes, _eo defenderent, quod nihil in ejus libris contineretur,
nisi quod ab ambitiosis principibus omni tempore factitatum
in historicorum paene omnium monumentis traditum esset.
... Cave ne illud tibi judicium placeatl. ' His criticism upon Bayle
is fair and liberal-minded 2; he has seen also that the attempt to
assign one motive, and one alone, to the composition of ThePrince,
may be unfair and delusive; he recognises that many portions
of The Prince were not intended to have an universal application,
and that the scientific interest for Machiavelli lay in the discussion
of the means by which a given end might, under given
circumstances, be reached: 'neque enim usquam ille tyrannidem
laudavit, suasitque capessendam neque unquam instituit,
quae ad illam tenendam artes pertinent, eas vel commendare in
universum, et, ut aiunt, absolute; vel ullo pacto justas habere
et legitimas. Sed ita suasit, deditque duriora illa, si qua sunt,
tenendi imperii praecepta, si quidem omnino tibi, cum tua
aliorumque pernicie, rerum per tyrannidem potiri, propositum
10p. cit. p. 9, note.
P- 9, note. After quoting Bayle's remark, ' Les maximes de cet Auteus
sont tr&s mauvaises, ]e public en est si persuad6, que le Machiavellisme, et l'art
de regner tyranniquement sont des termes de m_me signification,' he writes :
'ex animo quidem vir probus cordatusque. Verum nee satls legerat Machiavellum,
nee saris, opinor, operae dederat his literis, ut dijudlcare, quid ejus
doctrinae noceat, quid minus, posset.' The following quotation in the text ts
from the same passage.
F2