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THE PURPOSE OF 'THE PRINCE.' 15
book ofprincesofmany nations,familiarthroughoutthewhole
of Europe. It was translated into all the more important
European languages, and the translations gave but little help
towards appreciating the original ; for, apart from the difficulty
of so representing Machiavelli's words in a foreign language as
to create the same impression as the original, some were
translations of translations, and thus at least three times
removed from the truth.
While The _Prince enjoyed the popularity of all books which
appear to offer a logical demonstration that dishonesty is the
best policy, little attention was given to the circumstances under
which it was composed, and ultimately the historical point of
view was altogether lost. As its recovery seemed hopeless,
those who felt that their moral sense had been outraged turned
to the task, so easy and valueless, of abusing a writer whose
writings they neglected. Even where attempts were made to
frame an impartial estimate, little effort was made to discriminate
between those parts of Machiavelli's writings, which were
meant to have a general application, 'semper ubique et ab
omnibus,' and those other portions which were determined by
special and for the most part unusual and anomalous conditions.
This inability to distinguish between the general and the
particular portions, and the tendency to regard as universal
maxims of political science what were only suggested as
methods unfortunately rendered imperative in a given case,
increased the difficulties of criticism tenfold. Portions of
Machiavelli's doctrines were determined by the bent of his own
mind, but a large part also by his age and country: under
different circumstances many elements of his thought would
have been different; and criticism has often lost sight of this
truism.
There are other difficulties which are in a measure inseparable
from the form of expression which Machiavelli chose to
adopt, and which, for the rest, was in fairly common use in his
age. His style is epigrammatic, and lends itself to quotation :
single sentences can be easily remembered, and yet are scarcely
ever, when detached from their setting, an adequate measure of
his thought : the ' Mente di un uomo di stato' hardly gives a
fairer idea of the writer than the strange 'olla podrida' of
mangled quotations which forms the staple commodity in the