Strona 141 z 310

For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and

holding his state, the means will always be considered honest,

and he will be praised by everybody; because the vulgar are

always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it;

and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a

place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.

One prince[5] of the present time, whom it is not well to name,

never preaches anything else but peace and good faith, and to

both he is most hostile, and either, if he had kept it, would

have deprived him of reputation and kingdom many a time.

[5] Ferdinand of Aragon. "When Machiavelli was writing The Prince

it would have been clearly impossible to mention Ferdinand's name

here without giving offence." Burd's "Il Principe," p. 308.

CHAPTER XIX. THAT ONE SHOULD AVOID BEING DESPISED AND HATED