By P. F. COLLIER & SON

I. Of the Various Kinds of Princedom, and of the
Ways In Which They Are Acquired

II. Of Hereditary Princedoms

III. Of Mixed Princedoms

IV. Why the Kingdom of Darius, Conquered by Alex-
ander, Did Not, on Alexander's Death, Rebel
Against His Successors

V. How Cities or Provinces Which Before Their Ac-
quisition Have Lived Under Their Own Laws
Are To Be Governed .

VI. Of New Princedoms Which a Prince Acquires With
His Own Arms and by Merit

20

VII. Of New Princedoms Acquired By the Aid of Others

and By Good Fortune

23

VIII. Of Those Who By Their Crimes Come to Be

(XII. How Many Different Kinds of Soldiers There Are,

and of Mercenaries .

42

/XIII. Of Auxiliary, Mixed, and National Arms

47

/XIV. Of the Duty of a Prince In Respect of Military

Affairs.

5C

HC XXXVI

XV. Of the Qualities In Respect of Which Men, and
Most of all Princes, Are Praised or Blamed
XVI. Of Liberality and Miserliness

1

53

54

(A)

CHAPTER

/XVII. Of Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It Is Better To Be Loved or Feared

✔ XVIII. How Princes Should Keep Faith

555

PAGE

56

59

62

XIX. That a Prince Should Seek to Escape Contempt and
Hatred . .

XX. Whether Fortresses, and Certain Other Expedients
to Which Princes Often Have Recourse, are
Profitable or Hurtful

XXI. How a Prince Should Bear Himself So As to

Acquire Reputation.

XXII. Of the Secretaries of Princes XXIII. That Flatterers Should Be Shunned

71

XXIV. Why the Princes of Italy Have Lost Their States 82
XXV. What Fortune Can Effect in Human Affairs, and
How She May Be Withstood

XXVI. An Exhortation to Liberate Italy from the Barbarians.

83

86

ADDRESS TO THE CHRISTIAN NOBILITY OF THE GERMAN
NATION RESPECTING THE REFORMATION OF THE CHRIS-
TIAN ESTATE

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, one of the most brilliant and versatile
intellects of the Italian Renaissance, was born at Florence, May
3, 1469. He entered the public service as a young man, and be-
tween 1500 and 1512 he was employed in a number of diplomatic
missions to the other Italian cities, to France, and to Germany.
When the Medici returned to power in Florence in 1512, Machia-
velli lost his positions, and suffered imprisonment and torture.
On his release in the following year, he retired to the country and
devoted himself to study and the composition of his most famous
work, "The Prince." Other writings followed; and in the last
year of his life we find him again in active life, this time as a
soldier. He died June 21, 1527.

A more detailed account of Machiavelli, by Lord Macaulay, will
be found in the volume of “English Essays" in the Harvard
Classics.

Machiavelli's aim in "The Prince" has been very variously in-
terpreted. His motive was probably mainly patriotic; but the
exclusion of moral considerations in his treatment of politics led,
even in his own century, to his name's becoming a synonym for
all that is diabolical in public and private policy. Whatever may
be the relation of the methods expounded in " The Prince" to his
personal ideals, the book remains a most vivid and suggestive
picture of political conditions in the Italy of the Renaissance.

Machiavelli's " Discourses on Livy's Decades" deals on a larger
scale with many of the topics of "The Prince"; his "Art of
War" elaborates his views on the military side; and his " History
of Florence," his "Life of Castruccio Castracani,” and his
comedy," Mandragola," are characteristic products of an accom-
plished man of letters who one time was diplomat and soldier, at
another historian, poet, and dramatist. Few men represent so
thoroughly the extraordinary versatility of that wonderful age.
"Of all Machiavelli's writings," says Garnett, 'The Prince'
is the most famous, and deservedly, for it is the most character-
istic. Few subjects of literary discussion have occasioned more
controversy than the purpose of this celebrated book. Some
have beheld in it a manual for tyrants, like the memoirs of
Tiberius, so diligently perused by Domitian; others have re

66 6

garded it as a refined irony upon tyranny, on the sarcastic plan
of Swift's Directions to Servants, if so humble an analogy be
permissible. From various points of view it might alternately
pass for either, but its purpose is accurately conveyed by neither
interpretation. Machiavelli was a sincere though too supple a
republican, and by no means desired the universal prevalence of
tyranny throughout Italy.
His aim probably was to

show how to build up a principality capable of expelling the
foreigner and restoring the independence of Italy. But this
intention could not be safely expressed, and hence his work
seems repulsive, because the reason of state which he propounds
as an apology for infringing the moral code appears not pa-
triotic, but purely selfish.
With all his faults and
oversights, nothing can deprive Machiavelli of the glory of hav-
ing been the modern Aristotle in politics, the first, or at least the
first considerable writer who derived a practical philosophy
from history, and exalted statecraft into science."