06.2-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 part2

They who come to thePrincedom, as these did, by virtuous paths, acquire with difficulty, but keepwith ease. The difficulties which they have in acquiring arise mainly from thenew laws and institutions which they are forced to introduce in founding andsecuring their government. And let it be noted that there is no more delicatematter to take in hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor more doubtful in itssuccess, than to set up as a leader in the introduction of changes. For he whoinnovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under theexisting order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might bebetter off under the new. This lukewarm temper arises partly from the fear ofadversaries who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity ofmankind, who will never admit the merit of anything new, until they have seenit proved by the event. The result, however, is that whenever the enemies ofchange make an attack, they do so with all the zeal of partisans, while theothers defend themselves so feebly as to endanger both themselves and theircause.

But to get a clearerunderstanding of this part of our subject, we must look whether theseinnovators can stand alone, or whether they depend for aid upon others; inother words, whether to carry out their ends they must resort to entreaty, orcan prevail by force. In the former case they always fare badly and bringnothing to a successful issue; but when they depend upon their own resourcesand can employ force, they seldom fail. Hence it comes that all armed Prophetshave been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.

For, besides what has beensaid, it should be borne in mind that the temper of the multitude is fickle,and that while it is easy to persuade them of a thing, it is hard to fix themin that persuasion. Wherefore, matters should be so ordered that when men nolonger believe of their own accord, they may be compelled to believe by force.Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus could never have made their ordinances beobserved for any length of time had they been unarmed, as was the case, in ourown days, with the Friar Girolamo Savonarola, whose new institutions came tonothing so soon as the multitude began to waver in their faith; since he hadnot the means to keep those who had been believers steadfast in their belief,or to make unbelievers believe.

Such persons, therefore,have great difficulty in carrying out their designs; but all their difficultiesare on the road, and may be overcome by courage. Having conquered these, andcoming to be held in reverence, and having destroyed all who were jealous oftheir influence, they remain powerful, safe, honoured, and prosperous.

To the great examples citedabove, I would add one other, of less note indeed, but assuredly bearing someproportion to them, and which may stand for all others of a like character. Imean the example of Hiero the Syracusan. He from a private station rose to bePrince of Syracuse, and he too was indebted to Fortune only for hisopportunity. For the Syracusans being oppressed, chose him to be their Captain,which office he so discharged as deservedly to be made their King. For evenwhile a private citizen his merit was so remarkable, that one who writes of himsays, he lacked nothing that a King should have save the Kingdom. Doing awaywith the old army, he organized a new, abandoned existing alliances and assumednew allies, and with an army and allies of his own, was able on that foundationto build what superstructure he pleased; having trouble enough in acquiring,but none in preserving what he had acquired.

像他们这样历尽艰辛而成为君主的人，获取君权时是困难的，保持君权就容易了。他们获取君权时的种种困难，部分是产生于为了确保统治和安全而不得不去建立新的规章制度。应当看到，没有比试图建立新制度更困难的计划了，而且成败更无把握，实行起来更加危险，因为，倡导者将成为所有旧制度受益者的敌人，而新制度的所有受益者却只是些半心半意的拥护者。这种半心半意，部分是出于对那些反对者的畏惧，部分是出于不愿轻信的心理，人们在没有看到令人信服的确凿证据之前，是不会真正信任新事物的。因此，敌人只要抓住机会就会结党进攻，其他人只会半心半意地进行抵抗。由此可见，半心半意的臣民和倡导革新的君主都是危难中人。

为了更好地说明这个问题，必须研究一下这些革新者是依靠自身的力量还是求助于他人，就是说，为了经营他们的事业，需要恳求支持还是强行推进。如果四处向人恳求，那会度日维艰并将一事无成；但要依靠自己的力量强行推进，就不会有什么危险。所以，武装的倡导者全都获得了成功，而赤手空拳的倡导者尽成落花流水。

此外，人民天生就是反复无常之辈，就一件事情说服他们很容易，但要让他们坚信不疑就难了，因此，倡导者必须作好准备，一旦他们不再相信，就用武力迫其就范。假如摩西、居鲁士、忒修斯和罗慕路斯赤手空拳，人们就不可能长期服从他们创立的制度。我们时代的季罗拉莫·萨沃纳罗拉 [3] 修士就是徒手上阵的，由于他既不能使信任他的人坚定信任，又不能使不信任他的人产生信任，于是，一旦大众不再对他抱有信任，他和他的新制度便一起毁灭了。

因此，上面谈到的杰出人物，他们前进中的困难是巨大的，沿途充满了艰难险阻，只有依靠自己的力量加以克服，而一旦克服了困难，消灭了忌妒其高位的人物之后，他们就会受到崇敬，他们将是强大、稳固、荣耀和幸福的。

除了这些崇高的例证之外，我想补充一个次要的例证，它们多少有些相通之处，我想，它可以成为所有这类事例的代表，这就是叙拉古的希伦 [4] ，此人从平民一跃而为叙拉古的君主，除了机会之外，他根本没碰上什么幸运。遭受压迫的叙拉古人选择他做最高司令，他在那个地位上成了名，又被拥立为君主。其实，他在身为平民的时候就已显示了杰出的能力，以至于有人评论说：“除了王国之外，他做国王已经什么都不缺了。”他解散了旧军队，组建了新军；他抛弃了旧盟友，另缔新交。当他拥有自己的盟友和军队之后，就能在此基础上建立任何一座大厦了。因此，虽然他在获取时经受了许多劳苦，但在享用时却已没什么困难了。