with his ears and seen with his eyes the alternate rending anarchy and
moaning paralysis of Italy. He had seen what Agricola had long before
been spared the sight of. And what he saw, he saw not through a glass
darkly or distorted, but in the whitest, driest light, without flinching
and face to face. 'We are much beholden,' writes Bacon, 'to Machiavelli
and others that wrote what men do, and not what they ought to do.' He
did not despair of Italy, he did not despair even of Italian unity. But
he despaired of what he saw around him, and he was willing at almost any
price to end it. He recognised, despite the nominal example of Venice,
that a Republican system was impossible, and that the small
Principalities and Free Cities were corrupt beyond hope of healing. A
strong central unifying government was imperative, and at that day such
government could only be vested in a single man. For it must ever be
closely remembered, as will be pointed out again, that throughout the
book the Prince is what would now be called the Government. And then he
saw with faithful prophecy, in the splendid peroration of his hope, a
hope deferred for near four hundred years, he saw beyond the painful
paths of blood and tyranny, a vision of deliverance and union. For at
least it is plain that in all things Machiavelli was a passionate
patriot, and _Amo la patria mia più dell' anima_ is found in one of the
last of many thousand letters that his untiring pen had written.

The purpose, then, of _The Prince_ is to lay down rules, within the
possibilities of the time, for the making of a man who shall create,
increase, and maintain a strong and stable government. This is done in
the main by a plain presentation of facts, a presentation condensed and
critical but based on men and things as they actually were. The ethical
side is wholly omitted: the social and economical almost entirely. The
aspect is purely political, with the underlying thought, it may be
supposed, that under the postulated government, all else will prosper.