The works of the famous Nicholas Machiavel, citizen and secretary of Florence written originally in Italian, and from thence newly and faithfully translated into English.

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Title: The works of the famous Nicholas Machiavel, citizen and secretary of Florence written originally in Italian, and from thence newly and faithfully translated into English.
Author: Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527.
Publication: London :: Printed for John Starkey, Charles Harper, and John Amery ...,; 1680.
Rights/Permissions: To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
Subject terms: Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527.; Political science -- Early works to 1800.; Political ethics -- Early works to 1800.; War.; Florence (Italy) -- History.
Link to this Item: http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A50274.0001.001
Cite this Item: "The works of the famous Nicholas Machiavel, citizen and secretary of Florence written originally in Italian, and from thence newly and faithfully translated into English." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A50274.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 16, 2024.

Pages

CHAP. XXVI.

A new Prince in a new Conquest, is to make every thing new.

WHoever makes himself Lord of a City or State (and especially if he finds himself weak, and suspects his ability to keep it) if he intends not to continue the Go∣vernment in the old way, either by Kingship or Common-wealth, the best course he can take is to subvert all, to turn every thing topsie turvy; and make all things as new as him∣self. To alter the Magistracy, create new Titles, elect new persons, confer new Autho∣rities, advance the Poor, and impoverish the Rich, that what is said of David, may be said of him, Esurientes implevit bonis, & divites dimisit inanes. He filled the hungry with

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good things, and the rich he sent empty away. Besides it is his interest to build new Cities, to erect new Corporations; to demolish and uncharter the old; to shift the Inhabitants from one place to another; in a word, so to toss and transpose every thing, that there be no honor, nor wealth, nor preferment in the whole Province, but what is ownable to him. And for this he need go no farther than Philip of Macedon (Father to Alexander the Great) for his pattern, who by this practice, of a small Prince, made himself Monarch of all Greece, of whom it is said, That he removed his people, as a Shepheard did his fold. Those ways are cruel, and contrary not only to all civil, but to all Christian, and indeed human con∣versation; for which reason they are to be rejected by every body, for certainly 'tis better to remain a private person, than to make ones self King, by the calamity and destruction of his people. Nevertheless, he who neglects to take the first good way, if he will pre∣serve himself, must make use of this bad; for though many Princes take a middle way betwixt both, yet they find it extream difficult and dangerous; for being neither good nor bad, they are neither fear'd nor belov'd, and so unlikely to prosper.