The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-06
The Morality N Nations
BY THoMs5 H. CLARK.


 Naive de Biran extracts this conclusion from the Esprit des Lois: There is nothing absolute in religion. in morality and even less so in politics" In the mer- v very doctrine of Helvetius: There is mo no place for probity among nations"
 These things survive, transmitted, in the edifying and popular epigram: the worlds history is summed up in the worlds ludg- Tn these words: T have always seen God justify Himself in the long run" Reuss. teacher of opposite tendency and great CT name. is equally consoling; Mans destiny is accomplished here below; Gods justice exerts. itself and manifests itself upon this earth" Thirlwall hesitates to say whatever is, is best. but l have strong faith that it is for the best. and toward good" And Sedgwick, combining induction with theology, writes: "If there be a experimenting Providence, and If His will be manifested by general laws. world. then must a violation of those laws be a violation of His will and be pregnant with inevitable mikerv;"
 Apart from the language of Religion. an optimism ranging to the bounds of fatal ism is the philosophy of many, especially of historians. Sainte Beuve says: There is an every general and persistent fact a power of insensible demonstration and Scherer describes progress as kind of impersonal and objective logic which re- solves all questions without appeal. Ranke has written: The best tombstone of truth is time; and Sybel explains that this was not short way out of con fusion and incertitude, but profound Reneralization; generation. whole peo- pie disappear. the survivors have right on their side. Richeliens maxim: Great designs and notable enterprises are never verefied except by success and Napoleous: I hr, Gsr1k AI ARl- ously appropriated by Fustel de Coulan- ges: That which marks a true man of affairs is success and one recognizes him before all things else by the one sign. he succeeds. schafer derides Macanley for thinking that human happiness con cerns political science. The wisdom of sttaes si power and the a of politics is to possess power. One of Monuments pas states Is power and tre of DO itics Is to moves MT. Freeman to compla n that he seems unable to understand that a small State can have any rights, or that generous or patriotic sentiment can find a place anywhere except in the breast of fool. Nefftzer, an Alsatian borderer. says: The supreme duty of no vidual is to devote himself. that of na- tons to preserve themselves and accord inslv blend conduct with interest. Mir. Leslie Stephen thus lays down the philo- That only succeeds which is based on divine truth and permanent success there fore proves the right, as the effect proves the cause. MT. Goldwin Smith discovers the same lesson: History. of itself. if observed as science observes the facts of the physical world, can scarcely give man any principle or any object of allegiance. unless it be success.
 English experience has not been familiar with line of thought plainly involving indulgence to Machiaveili. Nolan has said: We continually find a more flagiti- ous and undisguised abandonment of | moral rules for the sake of some idol of | a general principle than can be imputed | customed hyperbole had been hazarded a century before in the obscurity of Latin dissertation by Feuerlln. You will easily | find running together in his pages the | most detestabel doctrines of the political doctors and the most rigid condemnation | of the authors themselves. What has been, with us. the occasional aphorism of | masterful mind, encountered support | abroad in accredited systems. and in a vast and successful political movement. | The recovery of Machiavelli has been es- sentially the product of causes operating on the Continent.
 When Hegel was dominant to the Rhine, | and Cousin beyond it, the circumstances | favored his reputation. For Hegel taught: The course of the worlds history runs | apart from virtue, from vice and pusIice as we'll. And the great Eclectic renew | ed In explicit language the worst maxim of the Istorie Fiorentine: The apology for | a century is' to be found in it's existence because it's existence is a decree and a 1 Judgment of God himself or history is but a ridiculous phantasmogory. The true mark of a great man Is that he succeeds i To despise power, q mean long and en- during power) Is to blashpheme human ty
 Laurent says of Machiavelli he has imitators, but no defenders: Machiave has found not a single partisan in the nineteenth century. Posterity has de- l voted his name to infamy while every. where living by his doctrines. His char acteristic universality has been recogniz' ed by Bandrillart In describing the bad side, but the bad side, alas! eternal, Mach iavel is not only the publicist of his time and country. he Is the politician of all centuries. Renan outbiddlng all, finds that honesty Is the worst DO icy. As general thing, in history, man Is punish ed for the good he does and rewarded fol the evil History is totally opposed tC | virtue rewarded.
 Lord Acton concludes of Machiavelli ir
 "He is the earliest conscious and articu late exponent of certsin living forces 1T the present world. Religion. progressive enlightenment, the perpetual vigilance O. public opinion, have not reduced his em pire, or disproved the justice of his con ception of mankind. He obtains a new leave of authority from causes that ar' still prevailing, and from doctrines tha are apparent in politics. philosophy anC science. Without sparing censure or em ploying for comparison the grosser symp toms of the age. we find him near ou common level, and perceive that he is no a vanishing type, but a constant anC contemporary influence. Where 1t is i'm possible to praise, to defend, or to ex cuse, the burden of blame may yet b, frightened by adjustment and distribution and he Is more rationally intellig bl, when illustrated by lights falling not only from the century he wrote In, but iron our own, which has seen the course O It's history twenty-five times diverted by actual or attempted crime"