e other: when otherwise, the end will ever
prove hurtfull for the one as well as for the other.

CHAP. XXIII

That Flatterers are to be avoyded.

I will not omit one principle of great inportance, being an errour from
which Princes with much difficulty defend themselves, unlesse they be
very discreet, and make a very good choice; and this is concerning
flatterers; whereof all writings are full: and that because men please
themselves so much in their own things, and therein cozen themselves,
that very hardly can they escape this pestilence; and desiring to escape
it, there is danger of falling into contempt; for there is no other way
to be secure from flattery, but to let men know, that they displease
thee not in telling thee truth: but when every one hath this leave, thou
losest thy reverence. Therefore ought a wise Prince take a third course,
making choyce of some understanding men in his State, and give only to
them a free liberty of speaking to him the truth; and touching those
things only which he inquires of, and nothing else; but he ought to be
inquisitive of every thing, and hear their opinions, and then afterwards
advise himself after his own manner; and in these deliberations, and
with every one of them so carrie himself, that they all know, that the
more freely they shall speak, the better they shall be liked of: and
besides those, not give eare to any one; and thus pursue the thing
resolved on, and thence continue obstinate in the resolution taken. He
who does otherwise, either falls upon flatterers, or often changes upon
the varying of opinions, from whence proceeds it that men conceive but
slightly of him. To this purpose I will alledge you a moderne example.
Peter Lucas a servant of Maximilians the present Emperor, speaking of
his Majesty, said that he never advised with any body, nor never did any
thing after his own way: which was because he took a contrary course to
what we have now said: for the Emperor is a close man, who communicates
his secrets to none, nor takes counsel of any one; but as they come to
be put in practise, they begin to be discovered and known, and so
contradicted by those that are near about him; and he as being an easy
man, is quickly wrought from them. Whence it comes that what he does to
day, he undoes on the morrow; and that he never understands himself what
he would, nor what he purposes, and that there is no grounding upon any
of his resolutions. A Prince therefore o