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CAPITOLO DECIMOTTAVO. 299
principi aver fatto gran cose the della fede hanno tenuto
poco conto, e the hanno saputo con l'astuzia aggirare
which he is himself the source,--he, or at any rate the State of which
he is the embodmd representative. The question of 'fede' will be
for him a question of detail ; if it be more expedient to lie, he will
lie, and he will not be conscious of any violation of principle ; his is
the ' lie in the soul ' ; honesty and dishonesty are for him convemble
terms, for he hlmselfmalees them both. It is true that Machiavelli
has nowhere followed out so far the results of his own postulates,
but such must be their logical conclusion.
If such are Maehiavelh's views, how was he led to form them?
The most convenient point of departure for discussion is perhaps
Disc. i. 2, where a short account is given of the origin of morality.
Machiavelli there states his belief that it is the laws which make
men moral; justme is simply a habit of mind forced upon man by
law; 'si r_ducevano a fare leggi, ordinare pumzioni a ehi contrafacessse;
donde venne la eogmzione delia giustima.' It is not for
Machiavelli the expression of a principle in human nature, a r_ gv r,_
qz,,X_, which is gradually being worked out in human life ; it is only a
disposition of society, variable and shifting, which is slowly and
laboriously created by the action of lmv. And secondly men are
naturally prone to evil, and Machiavelli's main postulate is that
everyone will do wrong if he can. -As, then, men are evil, and are
moreover very weak, there will be a point in the career of every
society at which the impulsion towards evil in human nature will get
the better of the restrictive and guiding force of law ; and it is at this
stage that the ' corruption' of a nation, in Machiavelli's special use of
the term, begins, and if unchecked it must ultimately lead to political
extinction But the corruption may be temporarily arrested by some
great force, and more especially by the intervention of a great man,
who endeavours to re-create the old ,}0o_of the state, or, in Machiavelli's
phraseology, to bring back the state to its beginnings. Human
nature by itself will never be sufficient for the task of regeneration ;
it cannot be depended upon to reform itself; it must be forced mto
the right course. The man on whom the task of reformation
devolves must clearly not be bound by the moral tenets of a corrupt
nation ; for they are but the remnants of law, and themselves the
creation of the lawgiver. [Discorsi, i. i7. ] In a country so corrupt
as Italy [Disc. i. 54], mere legislation can effect nothing, for law is
powerless in such a case [Disc. i. I7], ' le leggi per osservarsi hanno
bisogno dei buoni costumi' [Disc. i. I8], and the only hope is a ' mano
regia-' [Disc. i. 55] which by force may accomplish the desired end.
But it is difficult, if not impossible, to find a man capable of following
out such a project, for most men avoid the extremes of good and