PREFACE xiii 



Machiavellianism, or the view which, like Jesuitry in i p ,, > 

 religion, holds that in politics the end justifies thef P ^ 

 means, and that the prince for the good of the Stateii 

 Bhould use both good and evil arts according to 

 circumstances. But the English Machiavellian is 

 Hobbes, not Bacon. The expansive genius of Bacon j 



fitted him to hold the balance between the merits - r^ 

 and the defects of Machiavel ; and it is curious toi >. -^ 

 trace in the Advancement how he alternately praises f 

 and condemns him with calm impartiality. He 

 quotes his clever remark that the poverty of friars had 

 excused the superfluities of prelates- ; but criticizes 

 him for saying that a prince ought ' to play the part 

 of the lion in violence and the fox in guile as of the 

 man in vijjtue and justice ' ^. He agrees with him that 

 the Avay to preserve a government is to reduce it to its 

 principles ^, out dissents from his comparison of Caesar 

 with Catiline ■•. It is under the head of Civil Knowledge 

 that the English comes closest to the Italian politician, 

 whom he approves for 'discourse upon histories or 

 examples ' as drawing knowledge out of particulars, 

 and for history of times as the best ground for dis- 

 course of government ^. Under the same head. Bacon 

 follows Machiavel in the importance attached by him 

 to fortune in human affairs, and pays special attention 

 to the 'Architecture of Fortune''^; but he severs i 

 himself at once from the demoralization of his pre- { 

 decessor's views by subordinating fortune to virtue ".[ 

 Though he thinks it for the most part true, according' 

 to the Italian proverb, that ' there is commonly less 

 money, less wisdom, and less good faith than men do 

 account upon ' *, he does not draw the Machiavellian 

 conclusion, bad ff^th is to be repaid by bad faith, and 

 still less does he. approve of Machiavel's model, 

 Caesar Borgia, Duke Valentine '. If there is a Machia- 



' Post, p. 19. 2 p^g(^ p_ 92. 3 Post, p. 95. 



* Post, p. 186. » Post, pp. 197-8. 



6 Post, pp. 198-217. T Post, p. 200. • Post, p. 203. 



* Post, p. 205. 



