The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [230]
13. At the same time let him see that the assistant cannot stand alone,
14. So that rewards and praises may not make him desire more than both, and that cares may not make him timid.
15. When, therefore, leaders and their assistants are thus disposed, they can trust each other,
16. But when it is otherwise, the outcome will always be unsatisfactory for one or the other.
Chapter 10
1. In order to know how wrong is sometimes done by those who lead,
2. Hear what is said by advisers who teach leaders that they must sometimes do wrong in order to lead.
3. They say: ‘Everyone admits how praiseworthy it is in a leader to keep faith, and to live with integrity and not with craft.
4. ‘Yet history shows that those leaders who have done great things have held good faith of little account, and in the end have overcome any who relied on their word.
5. ‘There are two ways of resolving disputes, the one by agreement, the other by contest; the first method is proper to mankind, the second to beasts.
6. ‘But because the first has frequently proved insufficient, men have often taken recourse to the second.
7. ‘Therefore it is necessary to understand how leaders are apt to conduct themselves in both ways as appropriate.
8. ‘A wise leader cannot, nor ought he to, keep faith when such observance may be turned against him, and when the reasons that caused him to pledge it exist no longer.
9. ‘If men were entirely good this precept would not hold, but because they are often bad, and will not keep faith with each other, no one is bound to keep faith when it is injurious to himself.
10. ‘Nor will there ever be wanting to a leader legitimate reasons to excuse this.
11. ‘But this means that it is necessary to know how to disguise this characteristic, and to dissemble when required.
12. ‘Men are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.
13. ‘Accordingly it is unnecessary for a leader to have all the good qualities that men admire, but it is very necessary to appear to have them.
14. ‘To have such qualities and always to exercise them is injurious, but to appear to have them is useful;
15. ‘To appear merciful, faithful, humane, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to be so, you may be able to change to the opposite.
16. ‘A leader cannot observe all those things for which men are esteemed,
17. ‘Being often forced, in order to maintain his situation, to act contrary to fidelity, friendship and humanity.
18. ‘Therefore it is necessary for him to be ready to adapt as the winds and variations of fortune force it;
19. ‘Not to diverge from the good if he can avoid doing so, but, if compelled, then to know how to set about it.
20. ‘For this reason, a leader ought to take care that he never lets anything slip from his lips that is not replete with the above-named qualities,
21. ‘That he may appear to those who see and hear him altogether merciful, faithful, humane and upright.
22. ‘There is nothing more necessary to appear to have than this last quality, inasmuch as men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand,
23. ‘Because it belongs to everybody to see us, to few to come in touch with us directly.
24. ‘Everyone sees what a man appears to be, few really know what he is, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many.
25. ‘History teaches that when a leader has the credit of gaining and holding his success, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody;
26. ‘Because ordinary folk are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it;
27. ‘And in the world there are only such, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.’
28. Are such advisers right, who teach dissembling in pursuit of success, and the appearance of virtue when virtue itself cannot triumph, but with its opposite in its place?
29. It can be said that they have