06.1-Chapter 6 Of New Princedoms Which a Prince Acquires…mt

Chapter 6 Of New PrincedomsWhich a Prince Acquires With His Own Arms and by Merit part1

Let no man marvel if inwhat I am about to say concerning Princedoms wholly new, both as regards thePrince and the form of Government, I cite the highest examples. For since menfor the most part follow in the footsteps and imitate the actions of others,and yet are unable to adhere exactly to those paths which others have taken, orattain to the virtues of those whom they would resemble, the wise man shouldalways follow the roads that have been trodden by the great, and imitate thosewho have most excelled, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may atleast acquire something of its savour. Acting in this like the skilful archer,who seeing that the object he would hit is distant, and knowing the range ofhis bow, takes aim much above the destined mark; not designing that his arrowshould strike so high, but that flying high it may alight at the pointintended.

I say, then, that inentirely new Princedoms where the Prince himself is new, the difficulty ofmaintaining possession varies with the greater or less ability of him whoacquires possession. And, because the mere fact of a private person rising tobe a Prince presupposes either merit or good fortune, it will be seen that thepresence of one or other of these two conditions lessens, to some extent, manydifficulties. And yet, he who is less beholden to Fortune has often in the endthe better success; and it may be for the advantage of a Prince that, from hishaving no other territories, he is obliged to reside in person in the Statewhich he has acquired.

Looking first to those whohave become Princes by their merit and not by their good fortune, I say thatthe most excellent among them are Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus, and the like.And though perhaps I ought not to name Moses, he being merely an instrument forcarrying out the Divine commands, he is still to be admired for those qualitieswhich made him worthy to converse with God. But if we consider Cyrus and theothers who have acquired or founded kingdoms, they will all be seen to beadmirable. And if their actions and the particular institutions of which theywere the authors be studied, they will be found not to differ from those ofMoses, instructed though he was by so great a teacher. Moreover, on examiningtheir lives and actions, we shall see that they were debtors to Fortune fornothing beyond the opportunity which enabled them to shape things as theypleased, without which the force of their spirit would have been spent in vain;as on the other hand, opportunity would have offered itself in vain, had thecapacity for turning it to account been wanting. It was necessary, therefore,that Moses should find the children of Israel in bondage in Egypt, andoppressed by the Egyptians, in order that they might be disposed to follow him,and so escape from their servitude. It was fortunate for Romulus that he foundno home in Alba, but was exposed at the time of his birth, to the end that hemight become king and founder of the City of Rome. It was necessary that Cyrusshould find the Persians discontented with the rule of the Medes, and the Medesenervated and effeminate from a prolonged peace. Nor could Theseus havedisplayed his great qualities had he not found the Athenians disunited anddispersed. But while it was their opportunities that made these men fortunate,it was their own merit that enabled them to recognize these opportunities andturn them to account, to the glory and prosperity of their country.

我在以下对全新的君主国及其君主和政府的讨论中，将谈到一些最卓越的先例，人们不应对此感到惊讶，因为人们几乎常在重复别人走过的道路，并且效法别人的事迹——虽然不可能完全合辙，或者并不具备效法的能力。一个精明老练之人，常会追踪伟大人物的足迹，效法出类拔萃之辈，即使力不能逮，至少也会带有几分气派；他会像精明的射手一样行事，如果看到射击目标距离太远，为弓力所不及，那就瞄准目标的高处，这不是为了射中那个高处，是为了取法乎上而得乎中。

我认为，在全新的君主国里，由于君主是新生的，统治起来的困难有大有小，这要看征服者——君主的能力强弱了。由平民一跃而为君主，肯定是得益于能力或命运，而这两者中的任何一项显然都会有助于减少许多困难。然而，最少依赖命运的，却最有可能长治久安。如果一位君主除了新征服的地区之外没有其他领地，那就最好亲自驻扎在那里，这样他会发现好处更大。

我认为，依靠本人的能力而不是依靠命运成为君主的出类拔萃之辈，当属摩西、居鲁士、罗慕路斯、忒修斯 [1] ，以及能和他们相提并论的人们。当然，摩西只是上帝选定的他的意志的执行者，我们不必评头论足，但是，仅凭他获准有资格与上帝谈话，就应当受到尊崇。我们还是来看一下居鲁士以及其他那些赢得或创建王国的人们吧，你会发现他们全都令人惊愕不已；看看他们的作为及各自的方略，似乎与摩西的并无不同，尽管摩西有如此伟大的一位导师；再看看他们的行迹与生活，我们就会知道，他们拥有的是机会而不是命运，机会使他们所选择的形式有了内容；没有机会，他们的意志力就可能白白荒废，而没有意志力，机会也将了无用处。因此，身陷埃及、被埃及人奴役蹂躏的以色列人，对摩西来说就是必不可少的，他们为了从奴役中解脱出来而愿意追随他；对罗慕路斯来说，至关重要的是不应留在阿尔巴，并且一出生就被丢弃，这样才使他终于成为罗马王和他的故乡罗马城的奠基者；居鲁士所需要的则是波斯人厌弃米堤亚人 [2] 的统治，以及米堤亚人因长期和平而导致的愚钝软弱；对于忒修斯来说，假如雅典人不是一盘散沙，他想展示自己的能力是不可能的。所以说，机会使这些人功成名就，而卓越的能力则使他们能够洞察机会，结果是他们的国家蒸蒸日上，日趋昌隆。