Latest / The Philosophy Insights Collection / 03 - The Prince - Machiavelli
Transcript
- The author's dedication to the magnificent Lorenzo de Piero de Medici. Those who strive to obtain the good graces of a prince are accustomed to come before him with such things as they hold most precious, or in which they see him take most delight. Whence one often sees horses, arms, cloth of gold, precious stones, and similar ornaments presented to princes worthy of their greatness. Desiring therefore, to present myself to your magnificence with some testimony of my devotion towards you, I have not found among my possessions anything which I hold more dear than or value so much as the knowledge of the actions of great men, acquired by long experience in contemporary affairs, and a continual study of antiquity, which, having reflected upon it with great and prolonged diligence, I now send digest into a little volume to your magnificence. And although I may consider this work unworthy of your countenance, nevertheless I trust much to your madignity that it may be acceptable, Seeing that it is not possible for me to make a better gift than to offer you the opportunity of understanding in the shortest time. All that I have learnt in so many years, and with so many troubles and dangers, which work I have not embellished with the swelling or magnificent words, nor stuffed with rounded periods, nor with any extrinsic allurements or adornments whatever with which so many are accustomed to embellish their works. For I have wished either that no honour should be given it, or else that the truth of the matter and the weightiness of the theme shall make it acceptable. Nor do I hold with those who regard it as a presumption if a man of low and humble condition dare to discourse and settle the concerns of princes, Because just as those who draw landscapes place themselves below in the plain to contemplate the nature of the mountains and of lofty places, and in order to contemplate the plains place themselves upon high mountains, even so as to understand the nature of the people, it needs to be a prince, and to understand that of princes, it needs to be of the people. Take, then, your magnificence, this little gift in the spirit in which I send it, wherein if it be diligently read and considered by you, you will learn my extreme desire that you should attain that greatness which fortune and your other attributes promise. And if your magnificence, from the summit of your greatness, will sometimes turn your eyes to these lower regions, you will see how unmeritedly I suffer a great and continued malignity of fortune. End of the author's dedication.