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xiv IL PRINCIPE.
cannot be proved that Machiavelli used the two books of
the Digest which are still preserved in an almost complete
state [_rEp_7rp_L_v--Trep'L _per_ Ka_ _aKL'a_], for any other
purposes. And we do not know, and cannot safely
assume, that any other of the original fifty-three books
was extant at the time, with the exception of the ¢rEp_yvco_z,,
of which a few fragments have been discovered during
the present century. It is most probable that Machiavelli
derived his knowledge from a Latin version of the
Excerpta Mnliqua, existing in MS. While admitting that
Triantafillis' studies have been in many ways of service
to Machiavellian criticism, it is difficult to avoid feeling
that his main hypothesis is untenable. And even where
Isocrates is concerned, he appears to have exaggerated
Machiavelli's debt. Some further evidence on the subject
will be found in the notes to the present edition.
It is no paradox to say that The Prince, though in many
ways immoral, has been none the less of indirect service
to morality. It is not only that it has prompted enquiry,
and so ultimately led to the discovery of those principles
of political morality which modern states profess at any
rate to apply; it has also exerted a wider influence. The
Prince has the significance which belongs to the works of
all authors who have questioned, not in a spirit of selfishness
or from indifference, but from a reasoned conviction,
the commonly accepted codes of morality. Such writings
serve, by contrast, for a perpetual reminder that the
ultimate sanction of morality is, for the non-religious mind
at any rate, the suicidal nature of immorality :--
_r_ _v _r_tdo_arl_ra,
And with such writings it is always necessary to reckon.