120 Promise and Performance 



and by the event, and in this world there are none 

 but the vulgar." 



It therefore appears that Machiavelli's system is 

 predicated partly on the entire indifference to per 

 formance of promise by the prince and partly upon 

 a greedy demand for impossible promises among 

 the people. The infamy of the conduct championed 

 by Machiavelli as proper for public men is usually 

 what rivets the attention, but the folly which alone 

 makes such infamy possible is quite as well worthy 

 of study. Hypocrisy is a peculiarly revolting vice 

 alike in public and private life; and in public life 

 at least in high position it can only be practiced 

 on a large scale for any length of time in those places 

 where the people in mass really warrant Machia 

 velli's description, and are content with a complete 

 divorce between promise and performance. 



It would be difficult to say which is the surest way 

 of bringing about such a complete divorce : on the 

 one hand, the tolerance in a public man of the non- 

 performance of promises which can be kept; or, on 

 the other hand, the insistence by the public upon 

 promises which they either know or ought to know 

 can not be kept. When in public speech or in a 

 party platform a policy is outlined which it is known 

 can not or will not be pursued, the fact is a reflec 

 tion not only upon the speaker and the platform- 

 maker, but upon the public feeling to which they ap- 



