Even were history useless to other men, it would still be necessary to
have it read by princes. There is no better way of making them discover
what can be brought about by passions and interests, by times and
circumstances, by good and bad advice. The books of historians are
filled with the actions that occupy them, and everything therein seems
to have been done for their use. If experience is necessary to them for
acquiring that prudence which enables them to become good rulers,
nothing is more useful to their instruction than to add to the example
of past centuries the experiences with which they meet every day. While
usually they learn to judge of the dangerous circumstances that surround
them, only at the expense of their subjects and of their own glory, by
the help of history they form their judgment upon the events of the past
without risking anything. When they see even the most completely hidden
vices of princes exposed to the eyes of all men, in spite of the
insincere praise which they received while alive, they feel ashamed of
the empty joy which flattery gives them, and they acknowledge that true
glory cannot obtain without real merit.
Moreover, it would be disgraceful,--I do not say for a prince, but in
general for any educated man,--not to know the human kind and the
memorable changes which took place in the world through the lapse of
ages. If we do not learn from history to distinguish the times, we shall
represent men under the law of nature, or under the civil law, the same
as under the sway of the gospel; we shall speak of the Persians
conquered under Alexander in the same way as of the Persians victorious
under Cyrus; we shall represent Greece as free in the time of Philip as
in the time of Themistocles or Miltiades; the Roman people as proud
under the Emperors as under the Consuls; the Church as quiet under
Diocletian as under Constantine; and France, disturbed by civil wars
under Charles IX. and Henri III., as powerful as in the time of Louis
XIV., when, united under such a great King, alone she triumphs over the
whole of Europe.