news; for if God grant life to you, and to me, I hope
to make a good man of you if you are willing to do
your share.” Then, writing of a new patron,
he continues: “This will turn out well
for you, but it is necessary for you to study; since,
then, you have no longer the excuse of illness, take
pains to study letters and music, for you see what
honour is done to me for the little skill I have.
Therefore, my son, if you wish to please me, and to
bring success and honour to yourself, do right and
study, because others will help you if you help yourself.”
OFFICE — Aet. 25-43—1494-1512
The second period of Machiavelli’s life was
spent in the service of the free Republic of Florence,
which flourished, as stated above, from the expulsion
of the Medici in 1494 until their return in 1512.
After serving four years in one of the public offices
he was appointed Chancellor and Secretary to the Second
Chancery, the Ten of Liberty and Peace. Here
we are on firm ground when dealing with the events
of Machiavelli’s life, for during this time
he took a leading part in the affairs of the Republic,
and we have its decrees, records, and dispatches to
guide us, as well as his own writings. A mere
recapitulation of a few of his transactions with the
statesmen and soldiers of his time gives a fair indication
of his activities, and supplies the sources from which
he drew the experiences and characters which illustrate
“The Prince.”
His first mission was in 1499 to Catherina Sforza,
“my lady of Forli” of “The Prince,”
from whose conduct and fate he drew the moral that
it is far better to earn the confidence of the people
than to rely on fortresses. This is a very noticeable
principle in Machiavelli, and is urged by him in many
ways as a matter of vital importance to princes.
In 1500 he was sent to France to obtain terms from
Louis XII for continuing the war against Pisa:
this king it was who, in his conduct of affairs in
Italy, committed the five capital errors in statecraft
summarized in “The Prince,” and was consequently
driven out. He, also, it was who made the dissolution
of his marriage a condition of support to Pope Alexander
VI; which leads Machiavelli to refer those who urge
that such promises should be kept to what he has written
concerning the faith of princes.
Machiavelli’s public life was largely occupied
with events arising out of the ambitions of Pope Alexander
VI and his son, Cesare Borgia, the Duke Valentino,
and these characters fill a large space of “The
Prince.” Machiavelli never hesitates to
cite the actions of the duke for the benefit of usurpers
who wish to keep the states they have seized; he can,
indeed, find no precepts to offer so good as the pattern
of Cesare Borgia’s conduct, insomuch that Cesare
is acclaimed by some critics as the “hero”
of “The Prince.” Yet in “The
Prince” the duke is in point of fact cited as
a type of the man who rises on the fortune of others,
and falls with them; who takes every course that might
be expected from a prudent man but the course which
will save him; who is prepared for all eventualities
but the one which happens; and who, when all his abilities
fail to carry him through, exclaims that it was not
his fault, but an extraordinary and unforeseen fatality.
