ture of mankind to become as much attached to one by the benefits they
render as by the favours they receive; that, where the question is as to
the taking of life or the confiscation of property, it is useful to
remember that men forget the death of their relatives, but not the loss
of their patrimony; that, if cruelties should become expedient, they
should be committed thoroughly and but once--it is very impolitic to
resort to them a second time; that there are three ways of deciding any
contest--by fraud, by force, or by law, and a wise man will make the
most suitable choice; that there are also three ways of maintaining
control in newly-conquered states that have once been free--by ruining
them, by inhabiting them, or by permitting them to keep their own laws
and to pay tribute. Of these the first will often be found the best, as
we may see from the history of the Romans, who were experienced judges
of such cases. That, as respects the family of a rival but conquered
sovereign, the greatest pains should be taken to extinguish it
completely; for history proves, what many fabulous traditions relate,
that dangerous political consequences have originated in the escape of
some obscure or insignificant member; that men of the highest order, who
are, therefore, of sound judgment--who seek for actual social truths for
their guidance rather than visionary models which never existed--will
conform to the decisions of reason, and never be influenced by feelings
of sentiment, unless it is apparent that some collateral advantage will
arise from the temporary exhibition thereof; and that they will put a
just estimate on the delusions in which the vulgar indulge, casting
aside the so-called interventions of Divine Providence, which are, in
reality, nothing more than the concatenation of certain circumstances
following the ordinary law of cause and effect, but which, by
interfering with the action of each other, have assumed a direction
which the judgment of the wisest could not have foreseen.

Europe has visited with its maledictions the great political writer by
whom these atrocious maxims have been recommended, forgetting that his
offence consists not in inventing, but in divulging them. His works thus
offer the purest example we possess of physical statesmanship. They are
altogether impassive. He views the management of a state precisely as he
might do the construction of a machine, recommending that such a wheel
or such a lever s