PORTRAIT OF MACHIAVELLI
365
all the tension, the rigor, the cruelty, the strenuous relentlessness of
reasoning which is sharpened by suffering. But this two-sidedness is
hardly conducive to the equilibrium and coherence of an intellect that
is free from all special motivation. It is typical of all voluptuous
pleasures, whether sad or cruel, to extend beyond reasonable, sane
limits. To this kind of passion, which turns back on itself in order to
feel more alive, we owe that degree of unilateralness, of dispropor–
tion, of monstrousness
in
short, which marks the so-called political
science of the
Prince .
To call the precepts of the Prince "political
science" would be like calling the not disinterested advice of the
Marquis De Sade an
«ars amandi."
In both cases, one particular
aspect of a whole function is set up as law, thanks to the inability
to feel alive whenever the preferred activity is harmonized with all
the other activities that are typical of the spirit : the inability to love,
or to engage in politics, while respecting the independence and exist–
ence of all the other values.
This is not to deny that Machiavelli, writing the
Prince,
had it
in mind to compose a purely political treatise, and to depict an ideal
figure of a statesman who would be able to drive out the barbarians
and unify Italy-someone modeled on the great monarchies to the
north or on certain Italian principates. Of Machiavelli's patriotism
there is no doubt; nor does one doubt all the other qualities and merits
attributed to him very convincingly by the criticism of the last de–
cades. What I want to show is not that this or that quality or virtue
is lacking, but rather that they are insufficient to counterweigh cer–
tain pre-existing psychological characteristics which give rise to all
the contradictions and excesses of so-called Machiavellianism. In
other words, in my opinion the grandiose machine of the Machiavel–
lian doctrine is put in motion by a motor that has nothing to do with
politics. Hence the explosive, lyrical, peremptory character of the
Prince :
as if, once the machine had been set up and everything pre–
arranged, the motor suddenly began to turn over by itself in an un–
foreseen, violent way, throwing the whole construction into peril.
Machiavelli talks a good deal in the
Prince
about the various
means of conquering and holding a principate, and about the differ–
ent problems that arise in such matters. In enumerating the various
types of principate he also mentions the ecclesiastical holdings. At
this point we come to the famous and ironical passage on the Church
