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_9 8 IL PRINCIPE.
e vivere con integrit/_, e non con astuzia, ciascuno lo intende.
Nondimanco si vede per esperienza ne' nostri tempi quelli
essentially different ; with Machiavelli there is no attempt to justify
deviations from ordinary canons of morality by reference to special
circumstances ; for his rules apply to the whole of the public life of
the prince, and the moral question is dropped altogether. Nor must
we look for an ideal consistency in an emotional writer like Machiavelli
; he can at times feel an 'immense yearning to follow the good
ages' of the world [Disc. i. io], but yet such passing enthusiasm
affects but little the final result ; ' io m' ingegnal sempre di tenere il
giudizio saldo' [Lett. Faro. xxxviii.]
The ideas of this chapter were rendered easier for Machiavelli
by the peculiar circumstances of his age. We do not of course
in any way justify unsound doctrines by showing that they were
commonly accepted, but we do in a measure explain them. In an
age when the religious sense was almost dead, and religion itself
discredited, morality also came to be disregarded, because morality
and religion were not separated: 'au moyen _ge, la religion ne se
sdparait pas de la morale ; et c'dtait au nom de la morale, que l'autoritd
religieuse rdclamait la supr6matie politique. Vaincue dans cette
lutte, elle dut, dans le premier moment, entrainer la morale avec
elle. La politique restde seule, r_duite /_ ses propres principes, ne
rut que la science de vaincre et de dominer par la force ou par la
ruse ; ddbarrassd d'un joug importun, elle se d_llvra de tout frein :
telle fut la politique du xv e si_cle, dont Machiavel nous a donnd la
thdorie' [Janet, Hist. de la So. Pol.]. The idea of the inviolabihty of
public faith is essentially a modern idea ; it was not thought of m
Machiavelli's day; there was then no national or international
conscience. Nor had Machiavelli's contemporaries any notion of the
idea of progress, whmh was the creation of the eighteenth century.
They were largely under the influence of the old analogy between
state and individual; progress stops at a certain point, and then
decay inevitably sets in. But for Machiavelli, at any rate, this
resemblance between the stages of existence in state and individuals
did not imply any parallelism m their methods of action, or the laws
which should govern them ; ' una repubblica e un popolo si governa
altrimentl che un privato' [Legaz. all' Imperatore ; Op. vii. 17i 1. He
had a glinnnering of the distinction between ' Staat' and 'Gesellschaft,'
but he misinterpreted the meaning of the terms; for us
' Staat' represents the domain of law and authority ; for Machiavelli
it was the domain of caprice, and of individual action. Within this
field the statesman or prince is free to act as he pleases, and his
actions lose all ethical value and become absolutely indifferent. Or
if there is any form of morality which binds him, it will be that of