I should be cautious of inculcating such a precept if all men were good; but as they are all wicked, and ever ready to break their words, a prince should not pique himself in keeping his more scrupulously, and it is always easy to justify this want of faith. I could give numerous proofs of it, and shew how many engagements and treaties have been broken by the infidelity of princes; the most fortunate of whom has always been he who best understood how to assume the character of the fox. The object is to act his part well, and to know how in due time to feign and dissemble; and men are so simple and so weak, that he who wishes to deceive easily finds dupes.
One example, taken from the history of our own times, will be sufficient. Pope Alexander VI. played during his whole life a game of deception; and notwithstanding his faithless conduct was
which they have attributed to him, or rather these culpable princes have committed the evil without reading him; for to that end there is no need of the instruction of a centaur. It would be easy to prove, even by examples, that the success of perfidy cannot be durable, and that moral laws which exclude not prudence may be usefully applied to internal and external policy. It should first be observed, that this point cannot be settled or appreciated by the success of one man during his life, or of several men during their lives, but, to develope it effectually, it is from the life of a people that these calculations should be made: now the life of a people is the period of its duration as a people.—Note of the French Translator Guiraudet.
