In those chapters which Machiavelli has devoted to the exposition of the qualities that befit a Prince, it is clear that Cesare Borgia was not unfrequentlv before his eyes.[1] The worst thing that can be said about Italy of the sixteenth century is that such an analyst as Machiavelli should have been able to idealize an adventurer whose egotistic immorality was so undisguised.  The ethics of this profound anatomist of human motives were based upon a conviction that men are altogether bad.  When discussing the question whether it be better to be loved or feared, Machiavelli decides that ’it is far safer to be feared than loved, if you must choose; seeing that you may say of men generally that they are ungrateful and changeable, dissemblers, apt to shun danger, eager for gain; as long as you serve them, they offer you everything, down to their very children, if you have no need; but when you want help, they fail you.  Therefore it is best to put no faith in their pretended love.’  This is language which could only be used in a country where loyalty was unknown and where all political and social combinations were founded upon force or convenience.  Princes must, however, be cautious not to injure their subjects in their honor or their property—­especially the latter, since men ’forget the murder of their fathers quicker than the loss of their money.’  Under another heading Machiavelli returns to the same topic, and lays it down as an axiom that, since the large majority of men are bad, a prince must learn in self-defense how to be bad, and must use this science when and where he deems appropriate, endeavoring, however, under all circumstances to pass for good.

    [1] In a letter to Fr. Vettori (Jan. 31, 1514) he says:  ’Il
    duca Valentino, l’ opere del quale io imiterei sempre quando
    fossi principe nuove.

He brings the same desperate philosophy of life, the same bitter experience of mankind, to bear upon his discussion of the faith of princes.  The chapter which is entitled ’How princes ought to keep their word’ is one of the most brilliantly composed and thoroughly Machiavellian of the whole treatise.  He starts with the assertion that to fight the battles of life in accordance with law is human, to depend on force is brutal; yet when the former method is insufficient, the latter must be adopted.  A prince should know how to combine the natures of the man and of the beast; and this is the meaning of the mythus of Cheiron, who was made the tutor of Achilles.  He should strive to acquire the qualities of the fox and of the lion, in order that he may both avoid snares and guard himself from wolves.  A prudent prince cannot and must not keep faith, when it is harmful to do so, or when the occasion under which he promised has passed by.  He will always find colorable pretexts for breaking his word; and if he learns well how to feign, he will have but little difficulty in deceiving people.  Among the innumerable instances of successful