a new era for Machiavelli. He had come down, laden with the distinctive
reproach of abetting despotism; and the men who, in the seventeenth
century, levelled the course of absolute monarchy, were commonly known
as _novi politici et Machiavellistae_. In the days of Grotius they are
denounced by Besold: "Novi politici, ex Italia redeuntes qui quavis
fraude principibus a subditis pecuniam extorquere fas licitumque esse
putant, Machiavelli plerumque praeceptis et exemplis principum, quorum
rationes non capiunt, ad id abutentes." But the immediate purpose with
which Italians and Germans effected the great change in the European
constitution was unity, not liberty. They constructed, not securities,
but forces. Machiavelli's time had come. The problems once more were his
own: and in many forward and resolute minds the spirit also was his, and
displayed itself in an ascending scale of praise. He was simply a
faithful observer of facts, who described the fell necessity that
governs narrow territories and unstable fortunes; he discovered the true
line of progress and the law of future society; he was a patriot, a
republican, a Liberal, but above all this, a man sagacious enough to
know that politics is an inductive science. A sublime purpose justifies
him, and he has been wronged by dupes and fanatics, by irresponsible
dreamers and interested hypocrites.
The Italian Revolution, passing from the Liberal to the national stage,
at once adopted his name and placed itself under his invocation. Count
Sclopis, though he declared him _Penseur profond, ecrivain admirable_,
deplored this untimely preference: "Il m'a ete penible de voir le
gouvernement provisoire de la Tuscane, en 1859, le lendemain du jour ou
ce pays recouvrait sa liberte, publier un decret, portant qu'une edition
complete des oeuvres de Machiavel serait faite aux frais de l'etat." The
research even of our best masters, Villari and Tommasini, is prompted by
admiration. Ferrari, who comes so near him in many qualities of the
intellect, proclaims him the recorder of fate: "Il decrit les roles que
la fatalite distribue aux individus et aux masses dans ces moments
funestes et glorieux ou ils sont appeles a changer la loi et la foi des
nations." His advice, says La Farina, would have saved Italy. Canello
believes that he is disliked because he is mistaken for a courtier:
"L'orrore e l' antipatia che molti critici hanno provato per il
Machiavelli son derivati dal pensare che tutti i suoi crudi insegnamenti
fossero solo a vantaggio del Principe." One biographer, Mordenti, exalts
him as the very champion of conscience: "Risuscitando la dignita dell'
umana coscienza, ne affermo l' esistenza in faccia alla ragione." He
adds, more truly, "E uno dei personaggi del dramma che si va svolgendo
nell' eta nostra."
That is the meaning of Laurent when he says that he has imitators but no
defenders: "Machiavel ne trouve plus un seul partisan au XIXe
siecle.--La posterite a voue son nom a l'infamie, tout en pratiquant sa
doctrine." His characteristic universality has been recognised by
Baudrillart: "En exprimant ce mauvais cote, mais ce mauvais cote, helas,
eternel! Machiavel n'est plus seulement le publiciste de son pays et de
son temps; it est le politique de tous les siecles.--S'il fait tout
dependre de la puissance individuelle, et de ses facultes de force,
d'habilete de ruse, c'est que, plus le theatre se retrecit, plus l'homme
influe sur la marche des evenements." Matter finds the same merits which
are applauded by the Italians: "Il a plus innove pour la liberte que
pour le despotisme, car autour de lui la liberte etait inconnue, tandis
que le despotisme lui posait partout." And his reviewer, Longperier,
pronounces the doctrine "parfaitement appropriee aux etats d'Italie."
Nourrisson, with Fehr, one of the few religious men who still have a
good word for the Secretary, admires his sincerity: "_Le Prince_ est un
livre de bonne foi, ou l'auteur, sans songer a mal, n'a fait que
traduire en maximes les pratiques habituelles a ses contemporains."
Thiers, though he surrendered _The Prince_, clung to the _Discorsi_--the
_Discorsi_, with the pointed and culminating text produced by Mr. Burd.
In the archives of the ministry he might have found how the idea struck
his successful predecessor, Vergennes: "Il est des choses plus fortes
que les hommes, et les grands interets des nations sont de ce genre, et
doivent par consequent l'emporter sur la facon de penser de quelques
particuliers."
Loyalty to Frederic the Great has not restrained German opinion, and
philosophers unite with historians in rejecting his youthful moralities.
Zimmerman wonders what would have become of Prussia if the king had
practised the maxims of the crown prince; and Zeller testifies that the
_Anti-Machiavel_ was not permitted to influence his reign: "Wird man
doch weder in seiner Staatsleitung noch in seinen politischen
Grundsaetzen etwas von dem vermissen, worauf die Ueberlegenheit einer
gesunden Realpolitik allem liberalen oder conservativen, radikalen oder
legitimistischen, Doktrinarismus gegenueber beruht." Ahrens and
Windelband insist on the virtue of a national government: "Der Staat ist
sich selbst genug, wenn er in einer Nation wurzelt,--das ist der
Grundgedanke Machiavelli's." Kirchmann celebrates the emancipation of
the State from the moral yoke: "Man hat Machiavelli zwar in der Theorie
bekaempft, allein die Praxis der Staaten hat seine Lehren immer
eingehalten.--Wenn seine Lehre verletzt, so kommt diess nur von der
Kleinheit der Staaten und Fuersten, auf die er sie verwendet.--Es spricht
nur fuer seine tiefe Erkenntniss des Staatswesens, dass er die
Staatsgewalt nicht den Regeln der Privatmoral unterwirft, sondern selbst
vor groben Verletzungen dieser Moral durch den Fuersten nicht
zurueckschreckt, wenn das Wohl des Ganzen und die Freiheit des
Vaterlandes nicht anders vorbereitet und vermittelt werden kann." In
Kuno Fischer's progress through the systems of metaphysics Machiavelli
appears at almost every step; his influence is manifest to Dr. Abbott
throughout the whole of Bacon's political writings; Hobbes followed up
his theory to the conclusions which he abstained from; Spinoza gave him
the benefit of a liberal interpretation; Leibniz, the inventor of the
acquiescent doctrine which Bolingbroke transmitted to the _Essay on
Man_, said that he drew a good likeness of a bad prince; Herder reports
him to mean that a rogue need not be a fool; Fichte frankly set himself
to rehabilitate him. In the end, the great master of modern philosophy
pronounces in his favour, and declares it absurd to robe a prince in the
cowl of a monk: "Ein politischer Denker und Kuenstler dessen erfahrener
und tiefer Verstand aus den geschichtlich gegebenen Verhaeltnissen
besser, als aus den Grundsaetzen der Metaphysik, die politischen
Nothwendigkeiten, den Charakter, die Bildung und Aufgabe weltlicher
Herrschaft zu begreifen wusste.--Da man weiss, dass politische
Machtfragen nie, am Wenigsten in einem verderbten Volke, mit den Mitteln
der Moral zu loesen sind, so ist es unverstaendig, das Buch vom Fuersten zu
verschreien. Machiavelli hatte einen Herrscher zu schildern, keinen
Klosterbruder."
Ranke was a grateful student of Fichte when he spoke of Machiavelli as a
meritorious writer, maligned by people who could not understand him:
"Einem Autor von hoechstem Verdienst, und der keineswegs ein boeser
Mensch war.--Die falsche Auffassung des _Principe_ beruht eben darauf,
dass man die Lehren Machiavells als allgemeine betrachtet, waehrend sie
bloss Anweisungen fuer einen bestimmten Zweck sind." To Gervinus, in
1853, he is "der grosse Seher," the prophet of the modern world: "Er
errieth den Geist der neuern Geschichte." Gervinus was a democratic
Liberal, and, taken with Gentz from another quarter, he shows how widely
the elements of the Machiavellian restoration were spread over Europe.
Gentz had not forgotten his classics in the service of Austria when he
wrote to a friend: "Wenn selbst das Recht je verletzt werden darf, so
geschehe es, um die rechtmaessige Macht zu erhalten; in allem Uebrigen
herrsche es unbedingt" Twesten is as well persuaded as Machiavelli that
the world cannot be governed "con Pater nostri in mano," and he deemed
that patriotism atoned for his errors: "Dass der weltgeschichtliche
Fortschritt nicht mit Schonung und Gelindigkeit, nicht in den Formen des
Rechts vollzogen werden koennte, hat die Geschichte aller Laender
bestaetigt.--Auch Machiavellis Suenden moegen wir als gesuehnt betrachten,
durch das hochsinnige Streben fuer das Grosse und das Ansehen seines
Volkes." One censor of Frederic, Boretius, makes him answerable for a
great deal of presuming criticism: "Die Gelehrten sind bis heute in
ihrem Urtheil ueber Machiavelli nicht einig, die oeffentliche Meinung ist
hierin gluecklicher.--Die oeffentliche Meinung kann sich fuer alle diese
Weisheit beim alten Fritz bedanken." On the eve of the campaign in
Bohemia, Herbst pointed out that Machiavelli, though previously a
republican, sacrificed liberty to unity: "Der Einheit soll die innere
Freiheit--Machiavelli war kurz zuvor noch begeisterter Anhaenger der
Republik--geopfert werden." According to Feuerlein the heart of the
writer was loyal, but the conditions of the problem were inexorable; and
Klein detects in _The Prince_, and even in the _Mandragola_, "die
reformatorische Absicht eines Sittenspiegels." Chowanetz wrote a book to
hold up Machiavelli as a teacher of all ages, but especially of our own:
"Die Absicht aber, welche Machiavel mit seinem Buche verband, ist
trefflich fuer alle Zeiten." And Weitzel hardly knows a better writer, or
one less worthy of an evil name: "Im Interesse der Menschheit und
gesetzmaessiger Verfassungen kann kaum ein besseres Werk geschrieben
werden.--Wohl ist mancher in der Geschichte, wie in der Tradition der
Voelker, auf eine unschuldige Weise um seinen verdienten, oder zu einem
unverdienten Rufe gekommen, aber keiner vielleicht unschuldiger als
Machiavelli."
These are remote and forgotten names. Stronger men of the imperial epoch
have resumed the theme with better means of judging, and yet with no
harsher judgment. Hartwig sums up his penetrating and severe analysis by
confessing that the world as Machiavelli saw it, without a conscience,
is the real world of history as it is: "Die Thatsachen selbst scheinen
uns das Geheimniss ihrer Existenz zu verrathen; wir glauben vor uns die
Faeden sich verknuepfen und verschlingen zu sehen, deren Gewebe die
Weltgeschichte ist." Gaspary thinks that he hated iniquity, but that he
knew of no righteousness apart from the State: "Er lobte mit Waerme das
Gute und tadelte mit Abscheu das Boese; aber er studirte auch dieses mit
Interesse.--Er erkennt eben keine Moral, wie keine Religion, ueber dem
Staate, sondern nur in demselben; die Menschen sind von Natur schlecht,
die Gesetze machen sie gut.--Wo es kein Gericht giebt, bei dem man
klagen koennte, wie in den Handlungen der Fuersten, betrachtet man immer
das Ende." The common opinion is expressed by Baumgarten in his _Charles
the Fifth_, that the grandeur of the purpose assures indulgence to the
means proposed: "Wenn die Umstaende zum Wortbruch, zur Grausamkeit,
Habgier, Luege treiben, so hat man sich nicht etwa mit Bedauern, dass die
Not dazu zwinge, sondern schlechtweg, weil es eben politisch zweckmaessig
ist und ohne alles Bedenken so zu verhalten.--Ihre Deduktionen sind uns
unertraeglich, wenn wir nicht sagen koennen: alle diese schrecklichen
Dinge empfahl Machiavelli, weil er nur durch sie die Befreiung seines
Vaterlandes zu erreichen hoffte. Dieses erhabene Ziel macht uns die
fuerchterlichen Mittel annehmbar, welche Machiavelli seinem Fuersten
empfiehlt." Hillebrand was a more international German; he had swum in
many European waters, and wrote in three languages. He is scarcely less
favourable in his interpretation: "Cette dictature, il ne faut jamais le
perdre de vue, ne serait jamais que transitoire, et devrait faire place
a un gouvernement libre des que la grande reforme nationale et sociale
serait accomplie.--Il a parfaitement conscience du mal. L'atmosphere
ambiante de son siecle et de son pays n'a nullement oblitere son sens
moral--Il a si bien conscience de l'enormite de ces crimes, qu'il la
condamne hautement lorsque la derniere necessite ne les impose pas."
Among these utterances of capable and distinguished men, it will be seen
that some are partially true, and others, without a particle of truth,
are at least representative and significant, and serve to bring
Machiavelli within fathomable depth. He is the earliest conscious and
articulate exponent of certain living forces in the present world.
Religion, progressive enlightenment, the perpetual vigilance of public
opinion, have not reduced his empire, or disproved the justice of his
conception of mankind. He obtains a new lease of life from causes that
are still prevailing, and from doctrines that are apparent in politics,
philosophy, and science. Without sparing censure, or employing for
comparison the grosser symptoms of the age, we find him near our common
level, and perceive that he is not a vanishing type, but a constant and
contemporary influence. Where it is impossible to praise, to defend, or
to excuse, the burden of blame may yet be lightened by adjustment and
distribution, and he is more rationally intelligible when illustrated by
lights falling not only from the century he wrote in, but from our own,
which has seen the course of its history twenty-five times diverted by
actual or attempted crime.
VIII
MR. GOLDWIN SMITH'S IRISH HISTORY[322]
When Macaulay republished his Essays from the _Edinburgh Review_, he had
already commenced the great work by which his name will be remembered;
and he had the prudence to exclude from the collection his early paper
on the art of historical writing. In the maturity of his powers, he was
rightly unwilling to bring into notice the theories of his youth. At a
time when he was about to claim a place among the first historians, it
would have been injudicious to remind men of the manner in which he had
described the objects of his emulation or of his rivalry--how in his
judgment the speeches of Thucydides violate the decencies of fiction,
and give to his book something of the character of the Chinese
pleasure-grounds, whilst his political observations are very
superficial; how Polybius has no other merit than that of a faithful
narrator of facts; and how in the nineteenth century, from the practice
of distorting narrative in conformity with theory, "history proper is
disappearing." But in that essay, although the judgments are puerile,
the ideal at which the writer afterwards aimed is distinctly drawn, and
his own character is prefigured in the description of the author of a
history of England as it ought to be, who "gives to truth those
attractions which have been usurped by fiction," "intersperses the
details which are the charm of historical romances," and "reclaims those
materials which the novelist has appropriated."
Mr. Goldwin Smith, like Macaulay, has written on the study of history,
and he has been a keen critic of other historians before becoming one
himself. It is a bold thing for a man to bring theory so near to
execution, and, amidst dispute on his principles and resentment at his
criticism, to give an opportunity of testing his theories by his own
practice, and of applying his own canons to his performance. It reminds
us of the professor of Cologne, who wrote the best Latin poem of modern
times, as a model for his pupils; and of the author of an attack on
Dryden's _Virgil_, who is styled by Pope the "fairest of critics,"
"because," says Johnson, "he exhibited his own version to be compared
with that which he condemned." The work in which the professor of
history and critic of historians teaches by example is not unworthy of
his theory, whilst some of its defects may be explained by it.
The point which most closely connects Mr. Goldwin Smith's previous
writings with his _Irish History_ is his vindication of a moral code
against those who identify moral with physical laws, who consider the
outward regularity with which actions are done to be the inward reason
why they must be done, and who conceive that all laws are opposed to
freedom. In his opposition to this materialism, he goes in one respect
too far, in another not far enough.
On the one hand, whilst defending liberty and morality, he has not
sufficient perception of the spiritual element; and on the other, he
seems to fear that it would be a concession to his antagonists to dwell
on the constant laws by which nature asserts herself, and on the
regularity with which like causes produce like effects. Yet it is on the
observation of these laws that political, social, and economical science
rests; and it is by the knowledge of them that a scientific historian is
guided in grouping his matter. In this he differs from the artist, whose
principle of arrangement is drawn from himself, not from external
nature; and from the annalist, who has no arrangement, since he sees,
not the connection, but the succession of events. Facts are intelligible
and instructive,--or, in other words, history exhibits truths as well
as facts,--when they are seen not merely as they follow, but as they
correspond; not merely as they have happened, but as they are
paralleled. The fate of Ireland is to be understood not simply from the
light of English and Irish history, but by the general history of other
conquests, colonies, dependencies, and establishments. In this sort of
illustration by analogy and contrast Mr. Goldwin Smith is particularly
infelicitous. Nor does Providence gain what science loses by his
treatment of history. He rejects materialism, but he confines his view
to motives and forces which are purely human.
The Catholic Church receives, therefore, very imperfect measure at his
hands. Her spiritual character and purpose he cannot discern behind the
temporal instruments and appendages of her existence; he confounds
authority with influence, devotion with bigotry, power with force of
arms, and estimates the vigour and durability of Catholicism by
criterions as material as those of the philosophers he has so vehemently
and so ably refuted. Most Protestant writers fail in approbation; he
fails in appreciation. It is not so much a religious feeling that makes
him unjust, as a way of thinking which, in great measure, ignores the
supernatural, and therefore precludes a just estimate of religion in
general, and of Catholicism in particular. Hence he is unjust rather to
the nature than to the actions of the Church. He caricatures more than
he libels her. He is much less given to misrepresentation and calumny
than Macaulay, but he has a less exalted idea of the history and
character of Catholicism. As he underrates what is divine, so he has no
very high standard for the actions of men, and he is liberal in
admitting extenuating circumstances. Though he never suspends the
severity of his moral judgment in consideration of the purpose or the
result, yet he is induced by a variety of arguments to mitigate its
rigour. In accordance with the theory he has formerly developed, he is
constantly sitting in judgment; and he discusses the morality of men and
actions far oftener than history--which has very different problems to
solve--either requires or tolerates. De Maistre says that in our time
compassion is reserved for the guilty. Mr. Goldwin Smith is a merciful
judge, whose compassion generally increases in proportion to the
greatness of the culprit; and he has a sympathy for what is done in the
grand style, which balances his hatred of what is wrongly done.
It would not be fair to judge of an author's notion and powers of
research by a hasty and popular production. Mr. Goldwin Smith has
collected quite enough information for the purpose for which he has used
it, and he has not failed through want of industry. The test of solidity
is not the quantity read, but the mode in which the knowledge has been
collected and used. Method, not genius, or eloquence, or erudition,
makes the historian. He may be discovered most easily by his use of
authorities. The first question is, whether the writer understands the
comparative value of sources of information, and has the habit of giving
precedence to the most trustworthy informant. There are some vague
indications that Mr. Goldwin Smith does not understand the importance of
this fundamental rule. In his Inaugural Lecture, published two years
ago, the following extravagant sentence occurs: "Before the Revolution,
the fervour and the austerity of Rousseau had cast out from good society
the levity and sensuality of Voltaire" (p. 15). This view--which he
appears to have abandoned, for in his _Irish History_ he tells us that
France "has now become the eldest daughter of Voltaire"--he supports by
a reference to an abridgment of French history, much and justly esteemed
in French schools, but, like all abridgments, not founded on original
knowledge, and disfigured by exaggeration in the colouring. Moreover,
the passage he refers to has been misinterpreted. In the _Irish History_
Mr. Goldwin Smith quotes, for the character of the early Celts, without
any sufficient reason, another French historian, Martin, who has no
great authority, and the younger Thierry, who has none at all. This is a
point of very little weight by itself; but until our author vindicates
his research by other writings, it is not in his favour.
The defects of Mr. Goldwin Smith's historic art, his lax criticism, his
superficial acquaintance with foreign countries, his occasional
proneness to sacrifice accuracy for the sake of rhetorical effect, his
aversion for spiritual things, are all covered by one transcendent
merit, which, in a man of so much ability, promises great results.
Writers the most learned, the most accurate in details, and the soundest
in tendency, frequently fall into a habit which can neither be cured nor
pardoned,--the habit of making history into the proof of their theories.
The absence of a definite didactic purpose is the only security for the
good faith of a historian. This most rare virtue Mr. Goldwin Smith
possesses in a high degree. He writes to tell the truths he finds, not
to prove the truths which he believes. In character and design he is
eminently truthful and fair, though not equally so in execution. His
candour never fails him, and he is never betrayed by his temper; yet his
defective knowledge of general history, and his crude notions of the
Church, have made him write many things which are untrue, and some which
are unjust. Prejudice is in all men of such early growth, and so
difficult to eradicate, that it becomes a misfortune rather than a
reproach, especially if it is due to ignorance and not to passion, and
if it has not its seat in the will. In the case of Mr. Goldwin Smith it
is of the curable and harmless kind. The fairness of his intention is
far beyond his knowledge. When he is unjust, it is not from hatred;
where he is impartial, it is not always from the copiousness of his
information. His prejudices are of a nature which his ability and
honesty will in time inevitably overcome.
The general result and moral of his book is excellent. He shows that the
land-question has been from the beginning the great difficulty in
Ireland; and he concludes with a condemnation of the Established Church,
and a prophecy of its approaching fall. The weakness of Ireland and the
guilt of England are not disguised; and the author has not written to
stimulate the anger of one nation or to attenuate the remorse of the
other. To both he gives wise and statesman-like advice, that may soon be
very opportune. The first American war was the commencement of the
deliverance of Ireland, and it may be that a new American war will
complete the work of regeneration which the first began. Agreeing as we
do with the policy of the author, and admiring the spirit of his book,
we shall not attempt either to enforce or to dispute his conclusions,
and we shall confine our remarks to less essential points on which he
appears to us in the wrong.