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CAPITOLO DECIMOSESTO. 289
Cesare ed Alessandro, perch6 lo spendere quel d' altri non
ti toglie riputazione, ma te ne aggiunge; solamente lo
spendere il tuo _ quello che ti nuoce. E non ci 6 cosa
che consumi s6 stessa, quanto la liberalit/_, la quale mentre
che tu 1' usi, perdi la facult_t di usarla, e diventi o povero 5
o vile o, per fuggire la povertY, rapace e odioso. E intra
tutte le cose da che un principe si debbe guardare 6 l'essere
7. l'essero disprezzato e odioso] A subject to which Machiavelli
often returns. In the following chapters it will become clear what
immense importance he attached to a Prince avoiding both contempt
and hatred. In regarding these as the two great causes which lead to
the overthrew of a tyranny or principality, Machiavelli was using
language that was almost universal in his day, and which was mainly
determined by the study of Aristotle, though it was also common
among other ancient writers. [Cf. Marsllio Ficini : ' Nlhil periculosms
est in principe quam si quam plummi eum contemnant, vel oderint,
vel nimis invideant ; eontemptus quidem scientia, gravitate, integritate
vitatur; odium veto innocentia et humanitate lenitur'; and Guicciardinifgassim.]
But the influence of Aristotle was itself one of the
legacies of the middle ages, and Machiavelli's originality consists in
his having taken the traditional view of the Greek tyrant, and modified
it so that it may become the ideal of a new prince : we shall find,
for example, that S. Thomas Aquinas' comments on the tyrant of
Aristotle are repeated almost verbatim by Machiavelli of the new
prince. And not only are the causes which lead to the overthrow of
a tyranny the same with Machiavelli as with Aristotle, but the whole
of the eighteenth chapteris really founded upon the distinction between
8oKEh,and _tNatupon which Aristotle lays such stress in the eighth book
of the Politics, just as his account of conspiracies follows Aristotle's
pan passz,. The influence of Aristotle upon Machiavelli was notmed
by the earlier critics, but it was not till the appearance of Ranke's
famous essay that general attention was directed to the subject. With
the present passage, cf. Pol. z3Iab : 86o8"o_¢;o_alrt_ov_" &_i_dXtc_r'_rrtrlOev-
•raL ra_ "rvpav_lo't, tzlo'ov_ tca_ KaTa_po_/[_o'Eo)_, t_repoz, ii_:u _d vo_rw_, _Jr;_'lpxetp
_'o_ rvpd_'_ot_, r_ I_o'o_, _1¢8d ro_ Icava_bpove'irr_at rro_kal T[uo_rae "r_o_,Icara_tSo'eeOVo
Disc. iii. 2_ ; Op. 3. 380 : ' Colui che troppo desidera essere amato, ogni
poco che si parte dalla vera via, diventa disprezzabile. Quell' altro
che desidera troppo d' esser temuto, ogni poco ch' egli eceede il modo,
diventa odioso. E tenet la via del mezzo non si pu6 appunto ; perch_
la nostra natura non ce lo consente.' Lett. Fam. xxxvii ; Op. 8. x35 :
'avete ad intendere prima, che non _ cosa pifl necessaria a un principe
che governarsi in modo col sudd_ti, e con gli amici, e vicini, che non
d_venti o odioso o contennendo, e seppure egli ha a lasciare 1' uno di
U