1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 49 



MACHIAVELLL 



By J. S; EwART, K.C. 



Read Jan. 25, 1907. 



Will you be kind enough to fix in your minds the date A.D. 

 1500. It is a round figure and easily remembered. It is just a 

 millenium and a half after the birth of the greatest teacher of 

 morality the world has ever seen — a millenium and a half (of 

 progress shall I say) from Christ of Bethlehem to Nicola Machia- 

 velli of Florence (now thirt5^-one years of age) — from the greatest 

 ethical teacher, to one whose name connotes, usually, nothing but 

 diabolical depravity. 



1500 years before Christ we had Moses and a religion crude, 

 tribal, and anthropomorphic. From that time up — upon the 

 whole up — through Judges and Kings and Prophets until Jesus, 

 who swept away the old law, with its rituals, and sacrifices, and 

 feast days, and established personal purity, and charity, and love, 

 as the religion of the elite of all future ages. And 1500 years after 

 Christ, we have Machiavelli, whose name is now unconsciously 

 referred to when we say " Old Nick, " for people in aspersing the 

 devil could think of no harder title for him than the Christian 

 name of Machiavelli. 



General Execration. — It is difficult, now that we have 

 forgotten him, or possibly got used to his methods (we shall see), 

 to over-estimate the horror with which the great Florentine was 

 for many years regarded. No scholar ^nd teacher was ever so 

 execrated as was Machiavelli. Macaulay doubts ''whether any 

 name in literary history be so generally odious as his. " 



Reasons for Execration. — The reason for all this detesta- 

 tion is to be found in Machiavelli's two books, " The Prince " and 

 ''The Discourses upon Livy, " more particularly the Prince, and 

 especially the celebrated 18th chapter of that work. The heading 

 of the chapter is "How far a Prince is obliged by his promise"; 

 but Diederot's substitute, "The circumstances under which it is 

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