KINDNESS, according to Machiavelli, is something that is preferable to cruelty but should not be given away cheaply. Ironically, however, he also says that a prince should never be afraid of appearing cruel before his subjects. This was certainly true of Machiavelli’s hero, Cesare Borgia, who used it with great effect to suppress the population of the Romagna. However, rather than be consistently cruel Machiavelli recommends that the prince make an example of a few individuals who deserve it. Criminals, for example, who are a threat to the people as a whole and whose execution can not only deter others but also win support.

On the question of whether it is preferable for a prince to be either loved or feared, he says that

that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person it is much safer to be feared than loved, when only one is possible. The reason for this is that in general men are ungrateful, inconstant, false, cowardly, and greedy. As long as you succeed, they are yours entirely – they will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, when the need is far distant. But when the need approaches, they turn against you. A prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected other ways of protecting himself, will be ruined.

Machiavelli is certainly correct in that kindness is often interpreted as a sign of weakness:

Men are less worried about offending one who is loved than one who is feared. Love is preserved by the link of gratefulness which, owing to the weak nature of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a fear of punishment which never fails.

Being feared, he claims, is not the same as being hated, but one does get the sense that he is discussing his fellow humans in the way that a man might talk about an obedient hound. One way of avoiding the hatred of others, he says, is to avoid stealing property. Again, this is an example of the way Machiavelli ignores all notions of fellowship and morality and merely shapes his theories in accordance with that which suits the more selfish and individualistic aspirations of the prince himself.

Frederick begins his reply by accepting the power wielded by the prince, not to mention the responsibility:

The most invaluable deposit which is entrusted between the hands of the princes is the life of their subjects. Their load gives them the capacity to condemn the lawbreakers to death or to forgive them. They are the supreme referees of justice.

He continues by explaining that Machiavelli cares nothing for those who find themselves subject to the authority of the prince and that he finds it pleasing that a man should be feared by his subjects:

All that I request on this subject from Machiavel is of moderation. It is true that the leniency of an honest man can degrade into over-kindness; wisdom shows that severity cannot be dispensed with altogether. But this severity in its rigour is like that of a skilful sailor: one does not see him cutting the sails, nor the ropes, of his vessel when the hatches need to be battened down there by the imminent danger of exposure to the storm or the typhoon.

In response to Machiavelli’s negative portrayal of human nature, Frederick tells us that a prince who uses either fear or cruelty to contain his subjects will end up ruling over a country of slaves and cowards. The inevitable consequence, Frederick explains, is that the prince

will not be able to expect great actions of or from his subjects, because anything that was accomplished at all was done by fear and timidity, which will always be carried in their characters, even after the source of the cruelty is dead or deposed. I say that a prince who will have the gift of making his subjects love him will reign in their hearts, since these subjects will find it in their own interest to have him for Master.

By using fear, the prince often creates an atmosphere in which his more dissatisfied subjects have far less to lose and he therefore makes a rod for his own back. As far as Frederick is concerned, kindness is a virtue.

TO BE CONTINUED…