CHAP. XVII.
Of Cruelty and Clemency, and whether it is better to be loved than feared.
I now pass on to other qualities which are requisite in those who govern. A prince ought unquestionably to be merciful, but with propriety and within bounds. Cæsar Borgia was accounted cruel; but it was to that cruelty that he was indebted for the advantage of uniting Romania to his other dominions, and of establishing in that province peace and tranquillity, of which it had been so long deprived. And every thing well considered, it must be allowed that this prince shewed greater clemency than the people of Florence, who, to avoid being deemed cruel, suffered Pistoia to be destroyed. When it is necessary for a prince to restrain his subjects within the bounds of duty, he should not trouble himself about the reproach of cruelty, because he will find; in the end, that he shewed more humanity in making a few necessary examples, than those who by too great indulgence encourage disorders which produce robberies and murder. For tumults like these overturn the government, whilst punishments inflicted by the prince affect only a few individuals.
This is above all true in respect to a new prince, who can scarcely avoid the reproach of cruelty, every new domination being replete with dangers. Thus Dido, in Virgil, excuses her severity, by the necessity to which she was reduced of maintaining the interests of a throne which she did not inherit from her ancestors.
Res dura et regni novitas me talia cogunt
There is not, however, any necessity for a prince to be afraid of his own shadow, nor that he should lend too ready an ear to terrifying tales which may be told him. He ought rather to be slow to believe, and to act without at any time neglecting the laws of prudence. There is a medium between a foolish security and an unreasonable distrut.
It has been asked whether it is better to be loved than feared, or feared than loved. I am of opinion that both are necessary; but as it is not an easy task to unite them, and we must determine on one or the other, I think the latter (to be feared) is the safest. Men, it must be allowed, are generally ungrateful, fickle, timid, dissembling, and self-interested; so much so, that confer on them benefit they are entirely your's; they offer you, as I have already said, their wealth, their blood; their lives, and even their own offspring, when the occasion for any of them is distant; but should it present itself, they will revolt against you. The prince who, relying on such fair speeches; and neglects to guard himself against events, is in danger of destruction, because the friends that he has made by means of money, and not by the qualities of mind and soul, are seldom proof against a reverse of fortune, and abandon him when he has most need of them. Men are generally more inclined to submit to him who makes himself dreaded, than to one who strives to be beloved; the reason of which is, that this friendship being a mere moral tie, and a duty following a benefit, cannot hold against the calculations of interest: whereas fear carries with it the dread of putiishment, which they cannot bear to think of. A prince ought, notwithstanding, to make himself dreaded only in such a way, that if he cannot be loved he should at least not be hated, because he can easilý confine himself within these limits. Now, that he may not become hated, it will be sufficient for him to respect his subjects' properties and the honour of their wives. If he finds the punishment of death absolutely necessary, he should avow the motives of it, and, above all, abstain from touching the property of the condemned party. For certain it is. that men sooner forget the death of their relations than the loss of their patrimony. Besides, when he once begins to live by rapine, many occasions offer of seizing the wealth of his subjects, whereas those of shedding blood are rare and often wanting.
But when a prince is at the head of his army, and has under his command a multitude of soldiers, he should not trouble himself about passing among them as cruel; because that character will be useful to him, by keeping his troops in obedience, and will prevent every species of faction.
Hannibal, among many other admirable talents, possessed in a high degree that of making himself feared by his troops; insomuch, that having led into a foreign country a very large army, composed of all kinds of people, he never had cause either in prosperity or adversity to punish the least disorder or the slightest want of, discipliņe; which can only be attributed to his extreme severity, and those other qualities which caused him to be feared and respected by his soldiers, and without which his extraordinary talents and courage had been unavailing.
There have been writers notwithstanding, but, in my opinion, very injudicious ones, who, doing every degree of justice to his talents and his splendid achievements, have still condemned the principle on which he acted. But nothing can in this respect more fully justify him than the example of Scipio, onė of the greatest generals mentioned in history. His extreme indulgence towards the troops he commanded in Spain occasioned disorders, and at length a revolt, which drew on him from Fabius Maximus, in full senate, the reproach of having destroyed the Roman soldiery. This general having left unpunished the barbarous conduct of one of his lieutenants towards the Locrians; a senator, in his justification, observed, that there were men to whom it was more easy to excel than to punish. This excess of indulgence would in time have tarnished the glory and reputation of Scipio, if he had continued to command, and persevered in the same line of conduct; but far from injuring him, it turned altogether to his glory, because he lived under the government of the senate.
I conclude, therefore, by returning to my first question, whether it is better to be loved than feared—that men loving according to their fancy and their will, and fearing, on the other hand, the will of him who governs them, a wise prince ought only to rely on those who are at his own disposal; but he ought, as I have before observed, above all things to study to make himself feared without being hated.