Читать книгу Niccolò Machiavelli: The Prince (English Edition) - Niccolo Machiavelli , Ninian Hill Thomson - Страница 9

To the Magnificent Lorenzo Di 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, digested into a little volume, to

your Magnificence.

And although I may consider this work unworthy of your

countenance, nevertheless I trust much to your benignity 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 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 discuss 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 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.