But to enable a prince to form an opinion of his servant
there is one test which never fails; when you see
the servant thinking more of his own interests than
of yours, and seeking inwardly his own profit in everything,
such a man will never make a good servant, nor will
you ever be able to trust him; because he who has
the state of another in his hands ought never to think
of himself, but always of his prince, and never pay
any attention to matters in which the prince is not
concerned.
On the other hand, to keep his servant honest the
prince ought to study him, honouring him, enriching
him, doing him kindnesses, sharing with him the honours
and cares; and at the same time let him see that he
cannot stand alone, so that many honours may not make
him desire more, many riches make him wish for more,
and that many cares may make him dread chances.
When, therefore, servants, and princes towards servants,
are thus disposed, they can trust each other, but when
it is otherwise, the end will always be disastrous
for either one or the other.
CHAPTER XXIII — HOW FLATTERERS SHOULD BE AVOIDED
I do not wish to leave out an important branch of
this subject, for it is a danger from which princes
are with difficulty preserved, unless they are very
careful and discriminating. It is that of flatterers,
of whom courts are full, because men are so self-complacent
in their own affairs, and in a way so deceived in
them, that they are preserved with difficulty from
this pest, and if they wish to defend themselves they
run the danger of falling into contempt. Because
there is no other way of guarding oneself from flatterers
except letting men understand that to tell you the
truth does not offend you; but when every one may tell
you the truth, respect for you abates.
Therefore a wise prince ought to hold a third course
by choosing the wise men in his state, and giving
to them only the liberty of speaking the truth to
him, and then only of those things of which he inquires,
and of none others; but he ought to question them upon
everything, and listen to their opinions, and afterwards
form his own conclusions. With these councillors,
separately and collectively, he ought to carry himself
in such a way that each of them should know that, the
more freely he shall speak, the more he shall be preferred;
outside of these, he should listen to no one, pursue
the thing resolved on, and be steadfast in his resolutions.
He who does otherwise is either overthrown by flatterers,
or is so often changed by varying opinions that he
falls into contempt.
I wish on this subject to adduce a modern example.
Fra Luca, the man of affairs to Maximilian,(*) the
present emperor, speaking of his majesty, said:
He consulted with no one, yet never got his own way
in anything. This arose because of his following
a practice the opposite to the above; for the emperor
is a secretive man—he does not communicate
his designs to any one, nor does he receive opinions
on them. But as in carrying them into effect
they become revealed and known, they are at once obstructed
by those men whom he has around him, and he, being
pliant, is diverted from them. Hence it follows
that those things he does one day he undoes the next,
and no one ever understands what he wishes or intends
to do, and no one can rely on his resolutions.
