Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/556

 $2O Readings in European History by price, and not by the greatness and generosity of the mind, may seem a good pennyworth, yet when you have occasion to make use of it, you will find it of no account. Moreover, men do with less remorse offend against those who desire to be beloved than against those who are ambi- tious of being feared, and the reason is because love is fas- tened only by a ligament of obligation, which the ill-nature of mankind breaks upon every occasion that is presented to his profit; but fear depends upon an apprehension of punishment, which is never to be dispelled. Yet a prince is to inspire fear in such sort that, if he gains not his subjects' love, he may eschew their hatred; for to be feared and not hated are compatible enough, and he may be always in that condition if he offers no violence to their estates, nor attempts anything upon the honor of their wives, and also, when he has occasion to take away any man's life, if he takes his time when the cause is manifest, and he has good matter for his justification. But above all things he is to have a care of intrenching upon their estates, for men do sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony; besides, occasions of confiscation never fail, and he that once gives way to that humor of rapine shall never want temptation to ruin his neighbor. But, on the contrary, provocations to bloodshed are more rare, and do sooner evaporate ; but when a prince is at the head of his army, and has a multitude of soldiers to govern, then it is abso- lutely necessary not 'to value the epithet of cruel, for without that no army can be kept in unity, nor in the disposition for any great act. II. HUMANISM 218. Dante Dante was not a humanist in the later sense of the great writ- term, but he clearly appreciated the distinction and ers of Greece worth of the ancient writers. The following passage and Rome. (From the from the Divine Comedy is his poetic conception of the Comedy.) ^ Q f the famous pagans who lived worthily. He is