PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE 



PUBLISHED IN THE "OUTLOOK," JULY 28, 1900 



IT is customary to express wonder and horror at 

 the cynical baseness of the doctrines of Machia- 

 velli. Both the wonder and the horror are justi 

 fied, though it would perhaps be wiser to keep them 

 for the society which the Italian described rather 

 than for the describer himself, but it is somewhat 

 astonishing that there should be so little insistence 

 upon the fact that Machiavelli rests his whole sys 

 tem upon his contemptuous belief in the folly and 

 low civic morality of the multitude, and their de 

 mand for fine promises and their indifference to per 

 formance. Thus he says: "It is necessary to be a 

 great deceiver and hypocrite ; for men are so simple 

 and yield so readily to the wants of the moment 

 that he who will trick shall always find another who 

 will suffer himself to be tricked. ... Therefore 

 a ruler must take great care that no word shall slip 

 from his mouth that shall not be full of piety, trust, 

 humanity, religion, and simple faith, and he must 

 appear to eye and ear all compact of these, ... be 

 cause the vulgar are always caught by appearance 



(119) 



