[REBORN FROM THE ASHES][comment][01.08]

qxn_1987UID: 2610437

Politics have become discredited by the employment of culpable expedients and the adoption of immoral maxims; for their reputation to be retrieved they must be brought into accord with morality. 【After having resorted for so long to cunning and falsehood, to intrigue and violence, politics, were it only for the novelty of the thing, should try the effect of fair dealing, tolerance, and justice.】Today, more than at any period, novelty is liked. And what greater novelty could there be than politics conducted on moral lines? It is possible that people will end by recognizing that in public as in private life honesty is the most effective and the most skilful policy. 【Not only should Machiavellism be loathed by honorable people, but it should be regarded as fatal to the true interests of nations.】A great policy cannot be immoral. Craft and violence may score ephemeral successes, but they do not assure the greatness and prosperity of a country. The successes achieved by an immoral policy are not lasting; sooner or later nations, like individuals, politicians, just as private persons, are punished for the evil or rewarded for the good they do. Political crimes are punished more often than is supposed. Those who put their adversaries to death by poison or upon the scaffold often undergo a like fate; those who send others into exile are exiled in their turn.

embark upon（开始，从事，着手）

Liberty is not to be imposed by the guillotine; fraternity is not established by the extermination of its adversaries; the reign of justice and equality is not founded by popular or judicial massacres.

The disciples of Machiavelli declare that politicians should resort to violence（用暴力，动武） and even to crime, if to do so be necessary for the safety of the people, but what they call the safety of the people is often nothing more than（仅仅，只不过） the safety of their rule. The authors of the 18th Fructidor, who carried out that coup d’état（政变） under pretext of saving the Republic, violated the law solely with a view to escaping a personal danger; and far from saving the Republic, by demanding the intervention of a general they created a precedent for the 18th Brumaire. 【The public safety is an excuse for all violence and every iniquity. Moreover, when a political crime is really committed to assure the safety of the people, there is no proof that the crime is necessary, or that the people might not have been saved by other means.】【The safety of the people lies rather in respect for legality than in its violation.】【A people that does its duty can await the future with confidence; if it suffers for the moment in the cause of justice it is rare that the day of reparation does not dawn, for in the case of nations, as in that of individuals, it is virtues that elevate them and vices that debase them.】


A Machiavellian policy is not a great policy; to practice it a great genius is not necessary. It is easier to govern by expedients than by principles. What is more, there has ceased to be（不再是） any necessity for a policy of this sort in modern societies. 【It is comprehensible that Machiavelli's prince, that is to say, an absolute sovereign, should find it to his interest to sow division among his subjects in order to rule them; on the other hand, the maxim, "Promote division in order to reign," is out of place in a free Government that is supported by opinion and whose interest it is to unite and not to divide the community.】Terror may be an instrument of government for a popular or military dictator, but it becomes inapplicable under a government of opinion. This being the case, instead of saying, as under the old system of politics, "Cunning（adj.  n.）, still cunning, and always cunning; audacity, again audacity, and always audacity," the watchword（暗语, [军]口令, 标语, 口号, 格言） ought to be under the modern system of politics, "Straightforwardness, still straightforwardness, and always straightforwardness; justice, still justice, and always justice."

Diplomatic dissimulation becomes more difficult with the publication of parliamentary debates（议会辩论记录文件）. This publicity, which has its inconveniences, offers the advantage that it is profitable to morality. It is impossible for a Minister to confess in a public discussion that he harbors unjust projects. Moreover, as public opinion becomes more enlightened, and acquires greater weight, its sound common sense takes the place of the finessing of the diplomatists. A crafty policy is not always the most skilful. Henry IV. did not have recourse to（求助于，求援于） craft. A diplomatist who is in ¬the habit of resorting to（诉诸于，采取） falsehood ceases to inspire confidence and at once loses the greater part of his authority.

A policy based upon immorality is antiquated and unworthy of modern society; it pre-supposes contempt for humanity, and an antagonism that ought not to exist between those who govern and those who are governed. The policy of free peoples ought not to resemble the policy of absolute sovereigns; it is founded upon the respect of legality.

Whatever the skeptics may say, craft and violence are not necessities of politics. As society becomes more enlightened, politics may attain to greater perfection. Corruption is not an indispensable method of government: liberty can exist without license, it is allowable to hope for a state of things in which the administration will be impartial, the legislation equitable, the elections sincere, and in which industry and merit will be rewarded. 【The European Governments show better faith in respect to their financial engagements at the present day than in the past; they are conscious that it is to their interest not to tamper with（损害, 篡改, 贿赂, 影响, 瞎搞） their coinage, and not to go bankrupt, and for the reason that public confidence in their credit is their principal force.】 Why should they not arrive at understanding that they ought to have the same respect for liberty and human life as for the public debt?


The progress of public reasonableness is most of all to be counted upon（仰赖） to render politics more straightforward and more in accordance with（与…一致，依照） equity. Politicians, assemblies, and sovereigns, knowing that they will be called upon to give an exact account of their conduct before the tribunal of public opinion, will become more circumspect in the employment of expedients of a kind to arouse public indignation（愤慨，义愤）. 【Politics should serve an educational purpose as well as maintain order and protect material interests（物质利益）. Men are governed by ideas and sentiments as well as by appeals to their interests and to force.】 A lofty sentiment does not spoil politics. The great advances made in the sphere of politics have been advances of a philosophical order and have been due to an application of Christian philosophy. Unprincipled politics are Pagan politics, and their result is not the progress of society. 【The true policy consists in（存在于） an application of reason to the affairs of the State.】

【Skepticism has brought into existence at the present day a generation of politicians who set more store upon palpable realities than upon principles.】A policy of expedients and of vulgar satisfactions is the outcome of skepticism. The change that has taken place in our political morals has deep and remote causes（远因）. A people that used to be chivalrous, that despised money, that was fired with ardor for noble causes, now for political liberty, now for military glory, does not become positively skeptical, indifferent to principles, and attached to material interests in a day. / This change of character is the result of the numerous deceptions it has experienced, of the frequent revolutions it has undergone, but also of the weakening of spiritual beliefs.

"When a republic is corrupt," says Montesquieu, "none of the evils that crop up（突然出现） can be remedied, except by removing the corruption and reinstating principles; any other corrective is useless or a fresh evil." The suppression of the parliamentary regime would not be a remedy; the establishment of a dictatorship（专权） would be a fresh evil and a worse evil. The true remedy consists in a return to principles. Politics, like human life, need to be spiritualized unless they are to fall into the mire and to remain there. To change the persons composing the political world would be insufficient, unless a moral reform be affected at the same time. Clearly if the new politicians were as devoid of（缺少） principles as the old, all that would have been done would have been to exchange fat for lean kine, who in turn would wish to wax fat. Between fatted skeptics and lean skeptics the difference is but slight, or if there be any difference it is rather in favor of the former. Obviously satiated skeptics are less dangerous than skeptics whose appetites are keen, because it may be hoped that, having looked after their own interests, they will at last look after those of the country. This, according to Saint Simon, was the cynical remark made by Maison when the direction of the finances was taken from him. "They are making a mistake," he exclaimed, "for I had looked after my own interests and was going to look after theirs."

A return to principles and moral beliefs and the substitution of ideas for appetites are, in consequence, the true remedies for that hideous malady political corruption. It is only in the power of great passions to drive petty passions from the field. 【As long as noble sentiments, love of country and of liberty and purifying beliefs, are not revived in a country the parliamentary atmosphere will remain vitiated.】

Doubtless to exercise authority it is not sufficient to be above（不易受到…，不屑于，超出…之外） reproach; a clear intellect, tact, and experience are necessary. Talent, however, without morality is insufficient, and mere intelligence is no preservative against moral backslidings. Nobody would entrust his daughters or his fortune to the care of a clever but dissolute and extravagant man. Why then confide the country and the public fortune to the care of men of pleasure, who easily develop into men whose sole concern is money? When a money- and pleasure-loving man declares himself a friend of the people, who can believe in his sincerity? 【Affection is not proved by words, but by acts. The true sentiments of politicians are not to be judged by their professions of faith or their humanitarian speeches, but by their character and their habitual conduct.】The probity（正直） expected of the head of a Government involves not only his own personal integrity, but the choice on his part of men of integrity for his Ministers. "If we would pass for men of integrity," says Cicero, "we should not only display probity ourselves, but exact it of those about us."


Statesmen（政治家） would avoid many political errors if they were more respectful of justice; their political errors are often moral errors; their good sense and their skillfulness suffer in proportion as they swerve from the dictates of equity: they abandon themselves to passions that cloud their intelligence. Just ideas and wise resolutions are inspired by an upright conscience, whose qualities influence the intelligence. To be a man of good sense it is sufficient to be an honest man.

【By again becoming moral, politics would be brought back into unison with common-sense, and would be cured of（复原） two serious diseases called the Socialist madness and the Anarchist madness that are the result of the sophisms（诡辩） by which we are inundated, and of the letting loose of evil passions.】We lack reasonableness at the present day; our brains are disordered; our good sense, a quality that used to be particularly distinctive of the French, has been affected by innumerable philosophical, economical, and political sophisms that reach us from Germany, Italy, England, the East, and even from India. Good sense has ceased to guide our thoughts and actions since we have adopted German pessimism and socialism, English evolutionism, Italian skepticism, Russian Nihilism, and Asiatic Buddhism. Let us become Frenchmen again and Christians, let us return to the school of good sense and morality.

The malady from which contemporary society suffers is a moral disease rather than a political or economical disease. 【It is doubtless useful to improve institutions and to reform abuses but how much more necessary it is to reform morals and to give tone to men's minds by healthy ideas and moral beliefs.】If society is to be saved from the corruption by which it is invaded, and from the revolutionary barbarism by which it is threatened, spiritualist（唯心论者, 巫师） teachings must be restored to the place they formerly occupied in men's minds and in politics; this is the only way to save them from the clutches of envy and hatred.

The sentiment of duty and of personal responsibility must be re-established in the public mind and in the education of the young. 【It is necessary to fight against the sophisms which lead to the absorption of the individual by the State, and to the conversion of every citizen into a part of a colossal machine that produces wealth and distributes it according to each man's needs. 】The true remedy for the crises we are traversing is a return to the old morality, which teaches that working-men in common with（和…一样） their employers are intended to do their duty, and to labor, and have their responsibilities. / What other doctrine will teach the rich the spirit of sacrifice, and the voluntary renunciation of what is superfluous, and the poor the obligation of personal effort, the merit of patience, and respect for legality?

【It is not by encouraging atheism and materialism that a Government effects an improvement in morals, that it stills passions and relieves wretchedness.】【Hostility to religion is contrary to sound politics.】 【Merely from the utilitarian point of view the blindness and perversity are incomparable of those incredulous fanatics who would rob their fellows of the beliefs in which they find consolation.】Who can deny that the religious sentiment conduces to（导致，有助于） morality? The more religious citizens there are in a State, the fewer are the restless spirits, the Socialists and the Anarchists. In a period of skepticism, materialism, positivism, evolutionism, and nihilism, who can dream of denying the immense services rendered by Christianity in inculcating the dignity of human nature and the obligatory character of duty, and in opposing the worship of an ideal to the worship of the golden calf? In a society in which there is talk of nothing else but of the struggle for life, of the rights conferred by might, of the elimination of the weak, of the disgrace of poverty, of the all-powerfulness of wealth, religion teaches self-sacrifice, respect, and love for the poor, and responsibility before God and before the conscience. At a period in which Socialism, grown more and more threatening, demands that the State should be omnipotent, Christianity again performs a useful work in standing out for（[口](为等待更好时机)拖延时间，坚持，坚决要求） the rights of the human being and the rights of the conscience, and in setting limits to the action of the State. If spiritual beliefs were not regaining ¬their hold over（拖延, 继任, 以...威胁） men's minds one would be forced to tremble for the future of society, for "there comes a day when truths that have been scorned announce themselves by thunder-claps."

Nations, too, in their mutual relations（相互关系）, have every interest not to separate politics from morality. A sound policy, no less than morality, dictates to them justice and charitableness, which are alone capable of preserving peace and with it the benefits it carries in its train. 【The policy that teaches nations that they should envy, hate, and injure each other, that their conduct should be solely guided by their interests, and that the difficulties that crop up between them should be settled by force alone, such a policy is criminal and mistaken. 【The statesmen who counsel this narrow and egoistical, this envious and malevolent policy, are shortsighted, they are merely alive to the interests of the moment that are a source of division, but they are blind to（对…视而不见，看不懂） the interests which the peoples have in common, and above all to the disastrous consequences of antagonism and war; they do not keep in view the benefits of peace and the horrors of war.】

How far preferable to an envious and ambitious policy that divides nations would be a just, friendly, and moderate policy that would bring them together! How far happier the nations would be if they would cease to lend themselves to a revengeful and high-handed（高压的, 横暴的, 不容分说的） policy! What a pitch of prosperity Europe would have reached if, realizing the project of Henry IV., it had applied to politics the rules of good sense and Christian morality. The aspect of the world would be changed if the nations, considering themselves members of the same family, would banish violence and craft from their councils. The policy of Christian peoples is still Pagan: it must become Christian if the world is to enjoy peace.

Carried away by his somewhat excessive enthusiasm for military glory, M. Thiers has remarked: “What purpose would the strength of nations serve if it were not expended in attempts to gain the mastery over each other?" 【It seems to me, however, that the strength of nations might be more usefully employed than in realizing dreams of conquest, which are so dearly paid for in money and blood, and which end in disasters and catastrophes. Every time that a nation has sought to conquer other nations, it has caused torrents of blood to flow without profit to itself. All those who have entertained dreams of conquest have met with failure. To establish their supremacy Charles V. and Napoleon I. caused millions of men to perish, and they were unable to attain their goal: the former died in a convent, the latter on the rocks of Saint Helena; Spain and France were ruined by their ambitious policy. To how many conquerors may not these words of the Bible be applied: "The hammer that shattered the nations of the universe has itself been broken in pieces."】

A policy that aims at international equilibrium（国际均势） ¬is better than a policy of conquest. Empires that are too vast cannot last; they succumb, sooner or later, to a coalition between the other nations. That one nation should rule over another is always a danger to the common liberty, for a nation that is too powerful, like a too powerful sovereign, has a difficulty in keeping within the limits of a wise moderation. If the desire for domination be of value as a motive force in politics, why should not moral domination achieved through science, literature, and institutions be made the object of the activity of nations?

Skeptics are disposed to smile when they hear moralists express the hope that international wars will cease, and that arbitration will take the place of recourse to force. 【Lord Salisbury, however, who at one time considered this hope a dream, is now of opinion that it is realizable. "Civilization," he has said, "has substituted law court decisions for duels between private persons and conflicts between the great. International wars are destined in the same way to give place to the courts of arbitration of a more advanced civilization."】 In 1883 Switzerland and the ¬United States pledged themselves to submit to a court of arbitration all difficulties arising between them during a period of thirty years. In 1888 France contracted a similar engagement with the Equatorial Republic. In 1890 the plenipotentiaries（n.全权大使  adj.有全权的） of seventeen American Republics, assembled at Washington, admitted the principle of permanent arbitration.


【It may be hoped, in consequence, that war will become rarer and rarer in proportion to（与…成比例） the progress of civilization and of the moral and economical solidarity existing between different nations. The new engines of war, the destructive force of which augments every day, also contribute to the maintenance of peace, because peoples and sovereigns recoil in terror from the frightful consequences of a war waged with such formidable engines of destruction. The tendency of public opinion is more and more to compel Governments to maintain peace. It may be hoped in consequence that war, which is already more civilized, will become of rare occurrence.】

Still, as peoples and sovereigns have a tendency to become intoxicated by success, historians and moralists ought to unite their efforts to combat their unruly impulses. Historians, who habitually admire success, too often forget, when narrating wars, to inquire into（探究） their morality and utility; they almost always exalt the conquerors, and in this way corrupt public opinion, by accustoming it to allow itself to be dazzled by success. They should keep a little of the admiration they lavish upon conquerors for the upright men who have given evidence of their love of humanity and of their respect for human life.

As to the moralists, it is necessary that they should unceasingly combat the sophisms of immoral politics by declaring that reasons of State are the negation of reason; that the object of government is not to divide but to unite; that the lesser morality does not destroy the higher morality, because there are not two moralities; that public safety lies in justice alone: that the end does not justify the means; that illegitimate means result in the end being unattained; that right is superior to might; that justice is the supreme law; that the maxim that right is on the side of the strongest is a maxim good enough for wolves but not for men.

Science without conscience, Rabelais has said, is the ruin of the soul. Politics without morality are the ruin of society.



Comments:

Admittedly, this article, as far as I am concerned, is excellent and compelling, which is mainly on politics. In this passage, the author talks about his comprehension on the relation of the moral and politics. The character of high moral, such as straightforwardness, sincerity, from the speaker’s opinion, is more crucial and helpful than craft or cunning for statesmen in adressing politaical problems or remedying their political errors. Allow me to coin a sentence in the article: “The true sentiments of politicians are not to be judged by their professions of faith or their humanitarian speeches, but by their character and their habitual conduct.”

Furthermore, the passage contains so many points for me to learn from, including effective and profuse vocabularies, sentence varity, except insightful opinion.

限制修改？那就这样吧。。

123runfordreamUID: 2697608

14# tequilawine

1 After having resorted for so long to cunning and falsehood, to intrigue and violence, politics, were it only for the novelty of the thing, should try the effect of fair dealing, tolerance, and justice. 并列结构是什么成分呀？

resorted for so long to cunning and falsehood, to intrigue and violence,

123runfordreamUID: 2697608

Liberty is not to be imposed by the guillotine; fraternity is not established by the extermination of its adversaries; the reign of justice and equality is not founded by popular or judicial massacres.

The disciples of Machiavelli declare that politicians should resort to violence and even to crime, if to do so be necessary for the safety of the people,（这个be...？） but what they call the safety of the people is often nothing more than the safety of their rule.


A people that does its duty can await the future with confidence; if it suffers for the moment in the cause of justice it is rare that the day of reparation does not dawn, for in the case of nations, as in that of individuals, it is virtues that elevate them and vices that debase them. （it 把我绕了）

liberty can exist without license, it is allowable to hope for a state of things in which the administration will be impartial, the legislation equitable, the elections sincere, and in which industry and merit will be rewarded.

tamper with (to touch something or make changes to it without permission, especially in order to deliberately damage it)


Politics should serve an educational purpose as well as maintain order and protect material interests. Men are governed by ideas and sentiments as well as by appeals to their interests and to force.

The true policy consists in an application of reason to the affairs of the State.


A people that used to be chivalrous, that despised money, that was fired with ardor for noble causes, now for political liberty, now for military glory, does not become positively skeptical, indifferent to principles, and attached to material interests in a day. （不知道是被绕的还是怎么，就是没懂在说什么。）

The malady from which contemporary society suffers is a moral disease rather than a political or economical disease. It is doubtless useful to improve institutions and to reform abuses but how much more necessary it is to reform morals and to give tone to men's minds by healthy ideas and moral beliefs.
If society is to be saved from the corruption by which it is invaded, and from the revolutionary barbarism by which it is threatened, spiritualist teachings must be restored to the place they formerly occupied in men's minds and in politics; this is the only way to save them from the clutches of envy and hatred. (!!! I can’t agree more!!!)

The sentiment of duty and of personal responsibility must be re-established in the public mind and in the education of the young. It is necessary to fight against the sophisms which lead to the absorption of the individual by the State, and to the conversion of every citizen into a part of a colossal machine that produces wealth and distributes it according to each man's needs. The true remedy for the crises we are traversing is a return to the old morality, which teaches that working-men in common with their employers are intended to do their duty, and to labor, and have their responsibilities. What other doctrine will teach the rich the spirit of sacrifice, and the voluntary renunciation of what is superfluous, and the poor the obligation of personal effort, the merit of patience, and respect for legality? （个人对这段话忒有感觉！赞！！）

In a society in which there is talk of nothing else but of the struggle for life, of the rights conferred by might, of the elimination of the weak, of the disgrace of poverty, of the all-powerfulness of wealth, religion teaches self-sacrifice, respect, and love for the poor, and responsibility before God and before the conscience.




A sound policy, no less than morality, dictates to them justice and charitableness, which are alone capable of preserving peace and with it the benefits it carries in its train. The policy that teaches nations that they should envy, hate, and injure each other, that their conduct should be solely guided by their interests, and that the difficulties that crop up between them should be settled by force alone, such a policy is criminal and mistaken. The statesmen who counsel this narrow and egoistical, this envious and malevolent policy, are shortsighted, they are merely alive to the interests of the moment that are a source of division, but they are blind to the interests which the peoples have in common, and above all to the disastrous consequences of antagonism and war; they do not keep in view the benefits of peace and the horrors of war.


The policy of Christian peoples is still Pagan: it must become Christian if the world is to enjoy peace.(不理解…)

Every time that a nation has sought to conquer other nations, it has caused torrents of blood to flow without profit to itself.


"The hammer that shattered the nations of the universe has itself been broken in pieces."

A policy that aims at international equilibrium ¬is better than a policy of conquest. Empires that are too vast cannot last; they succumb, sooner or later, to a coalition between the other nations. That one nation should rule over another is always a danger to the common liberty, for a nation that is too powerful, like a too powerful sovereign, has a difficulty in keeping within the limits of a wise moderation. If the desire for domination be of value as a motive force in politics, why should not moral domination achieved through science, literature, and institutions be made the object of the activity of nations?

Skeptics are disposed to smile when they hear moralists express the hope that international wars will cease, and that arbitration will take the place of recourse to force. Lord Salisbury, however, who at one time considered this hope a dream, is now of opinion that it is realizable. "Civilization," he has said, "has substituted law court decisions for duels between private persons and conflicts between the great. International wars are destined in the same way to give place to the courts of arbitration of a more advanced civilization." In 1883 Switzerland and the ¬United States pledged themselves to submit to a court of arbitration all difficulties arising between them during a period of thirty years. In 1888 France contracted a similar engagement with the Equatorial Republic. In 1890 the plenipotentiaries (person and especially a diplomatic agent invested with full power to transact business) of seventeen American Republics, assembled at Washington, admitted the principle of permanent arbitration.


As to the moralists, it is necessary that they should unceasingly combat the sophisms of immoral politics by declaring that reasons of State are the negation of reason; that the object of government is not to divide but to unite; that the lesser morality does not destroy the higher morality, because there are not two moralities; that public safety lies in justice alone: that the end does not justify the means; that illegitimate means result in the end being unattained; that right is superior to might; that justice is the supreme law; that the maxim that right is on the side of the strongest is a maxim good enough for wolves but not for men.

Science without conscience, Rabelais has said, is the ruin of the soul. Politics without morality are the ruin of society.

Comment:

I don’t know what else I can say after reading this brilliant article, which almost makes me stand up and applaud for it. There are some great views I can’t agree more that I marked them. Well, I may need more time to clear it, but I am trying to put a picture in my mind that it talks about politics with moralities, which has been concluded in the end. We are clear about that a lot of politicians play tricks to fool publics for gaining their own dirty profits. And there is an example for the whole issue which is the Bush administration declared the war on Iraq. This war involved in terror, business, religion and politics. In the America, coping with the external relationship could be easily seen by the whole public. However, it dedicates that the moralities should be the guide line for the politics, which I conclude it in this way. How pathetic when people ignore the true soul of religion while they make decisions like opening a fight.

Admittedly, it is a good article for issues. Keep reading it.

敛寒影UID: 2613052

好词好句：

After having resorted for so long to cunning and falsehood, to intrigue and violence, politics, were it only for the novelty of the thing, should try the effect of fair dealing, tolerance, and justice. Today, more than at any period, novelty is liked.

It was not a shifty and violent policy that was pursued by ... Their example shows that...

...may score...just as...are punished for the evil or rewarded for the good they do.

resort to violence and even to crime, if to do so be necessary for... but what they call the safety of the people is often nothing more than ...

What is more, there has ceased to be any necessity for a policy of this sort in modern societies.

is out of place in a free Government that is supported by opinion and whose interest it is to unite and not to divide the community.

As long as noble sentiments, love of country and of liberty and purifying beliefs, are not revived in a country the parliamentary atmosphere will remain vitiated.

Just ideas and wise resolutions are inspired by an upright conscience, whose qualities influence the intelligence. To be a man of good sense it is sufficient to be an honest man.

It is doubtless useful to improve institutions and to reform abuses but how much more necessary it is to reform morals and to give tone to men's minds by healthy ideas and moral beliefs.

in inculcating the dignity of human nature and the obligatory character of duty, and in opposing the worship of an ideal to the worship of the golden calf?

The aspect of the world would be changed if the nations, considering themselves members of the same family, would banish violence and craft from their councils.

It may be hoped, in consequence, that war will become rarer and rarer in proportion to the progress of civilization and of the moral and economical solidarity existing between different nations.

Science without conscience, Rabelais has said, is the ruin of the soul. Politics without morality are the ruin of society.

Discredited

Culpable

Maxim

Ephemeral

Pretext

Solely

Cease to be

Have recourse to

Count upon

In accordence with

Crop up

In proportion as

Let loose

No less than

Comment:

Taking the reversed example of Machiavellism,a great policy cannot be immoral.A policy based upon immorality is antiquated and unworthy of morden society.At the present day a generation of politicians set more store upon palpable realities than upon principles,because of the numerous deceptions it has experenced,of the frequent revolutoins it has undergone,but also of the weaking of spiritual beliefs.The true remedies for the political corruption is a return to principles and moral beliefs and the substitution of ideas for appetites.As for public,the sentiment of personal responsibility must be re-established in the mind and the education of the young.Nations,too,in their mutual relations,have every interest not to separate politics from morality.The public safty lies in justice alone.

This article inculcating the morality and responsibility is vital for either public and society.As spirit is the centre of human,equity is of consequence in a great policy.In my oppinon, justice decides whether a government would gain respect and supported by public or not.Immorality and dispised justice bring about autocracy,which is eliminated by history finally.There is a aphorism those who gains popular were under the sun.Only sincere and equitable morality should gain public support.

Then how to re-establish the sentiment of duty and of responsibility at the present day,reality and benefit fill full of the society.I once asked my little niece that if she has 10 yuan,would she willing to hand out 1 yuan to the begger on the road,after a while,she put out her hand and asked me with the innocent eyes “Give me 10 yuan.”I am astonished by his action.With the deeply-solid ideology in our society that interests and personal development is important,the youth is deeply influenced.It is diffiult to alter scocial climate,public awareness and basic education is important.As mentioned in the article that the society should keep a little of the admiration they lavish upon consequerors for the upright men who have given evidence of their love of humanity and of humanity and of their respect for huaman life.

dingyi0311UID: 2627919

My comment
The author in the article mainly oppose the opinion of the skeptics. The government should not govern its people regardless morality. Machiavellism is a kind of political idea that people practice it only consider their goals rather than morality. Machiavelli declare that politicians should resort to violence and even to crime, if to do so be necessary for the safety of the people, but what they call the safety of the people is often nothing more than the safety of their rule. The author then showed his stance by pointing that A Machiavellian policy is not a great policy; to practice it a great genius is not necessary.
Though Diplomatic dissimulation will seems to be inconvenient and time-consuming, a demoncratic politic can be more harmonious and stable.political maintained by forces will surely cause much antagonism; History have prove it thousands times. And there was a famous people once said :” where there is press, there is oppose”
The author also think that politic that have already
corrupted have no remedy. The only way is to remove corruption and reinstate principles. the governor need to cultivate common sense and carry out justice and democracy

番茄斗斗UID: 2720914

Political Crime
Chapter XI Conclusion

By Louis Proal

Politics have become discredited by the employment of culpableexpedients and the adoption of immoral maxims; for their reputation tobe retrieved they must be brought into accord with morality. Afterhaving resorted for so long to cunning and falsehood, to intrigue andviolence, politics, were it only for the novelty of the thing, shouldtry the effect of fair dealing, tolerance, and justice. Today, morethan at any period, novelty is liked. And what greater novelty couldthere be than politics conducted on moral lines? It is possible thatpeople will end by recognizing that in public as in private lifehonesty is the most effective and the most skilful policy. Not onlyshould Machiavellism be loathed by honorable people, but it should beregarded as fatal to the true interests of nations. A great policycannot be immoral. Craft and violence may score ephemeral successes,but they do not assure the greatness and prosperity of a country. Thesuccesses achieved by an immoral policy are not lasting; sooner orlater nations, like individuals, politicians, just as private persons,are punished for the evil or rewarded for the good they do. Politicalcrimes are punished more often than is supposed. Those who put theiradversaries to death by poison or upon the scaffold often undergo alike fate; those who send others into exile are exiled in their turn.

There is more immorality than profoundness in Machiavellism. It was nota shifty and violent policy that was pursued by Saint Louis, L'Hopital,Henry IV., Sully, Turgot, Franklin, or Washington. Their example showsthat it is possible to be a great King, a great Minister, a greatcitizen, and at the same time an honest man. On the other hand, mightygeniuses have been the ruin of the peoples they have governed, becausethey despised justice and pursued a Machiavellian policy. Napoleon I.,who was solely guided by reasons of State, lost his senses in the endand embarked upon the war in Spain and the Russian campaign. Danton andRobespierre, who did not lack talent, brought the Republic to ruinthrough trying to save it by the Terror. Liberty is not to be imposedby the guillotine; fraternity is not established by the extermination（根除）of its adversaries; the reign of justice and equality is not founded bypopular or judicial massacres.

The disciples of Machiavelli declare that politicians should resort toviolence and even to crime, if to do so be necessary for the safety ofthe people, but what they call the safety of the people is oftennothing more than the safety of their rule. The authors of the 18thFructidor, who carried out that coup d’état（政变）under pretext of saving the Republic, violated the law solely with aview to escaping a personal danger; and far from saving the Republic,by demanding the intervention of a general they created a precedent forthe 18th Brumaire. The public safety is an excuse for all violence andevery iniquity. Moreover, when a political crime is really committed toassure the safety of the people, there is no proof that the crime isnecessary, or that the people might not have been saved by other means.The safety of the people lies rather in respect for legality than inits violation. A people that does its duty can await the future withconfidence; if it suffers for the moment in the cause of justice it israre that the day of reparation does not dawn, for in the case ofnations, as in that of individuals, it is virtues that elevate them andvices that debase them.

A Machiavellian policy is not a great policy; to practice it a greatgenius is not necessary. It is easier to govern by expedients than byprinciples. What is more, there has ceased to be any necessity for apolicy of this sort in modern societies. It is comprehensible thatMachiavelli's prince, that is to say, an absolute sovereign, shouldfind it to his interest to sow division among his subjects in order torule them; on the other hand, the maxim, "Promote division in order toreign," is out of place in a free Government that is supported byopinion and whose interest it is to unite and not to divide thecommunity. Terror may be an instrument of government for a popular ormilitary dictator, but it becomes inapplicable under a government ofopinion. This being the case, instead of saying, as under the oldsystem of politics, "Cunning, still cunning, and always cunning;audacity, again audacity, and always audacity," the watchword（标语） ought tobe under the modern system of politics, "Straightforwardness, stillstraightforwardness, and always straightforwardness; justice, stilljustice, and always justice."

Diplomatic dissimulation becomes more difficult with the publication ofparliamentary debates. This publicity, which has its inconveniences,offers the advantage that it is profitable to morality. It isimpossible for a Minister to confess in a public discussion that heharbors unjust projects. Moreover, as public opinion becomes moreenlightened, and acquires greater weight,its sound common sense takes the place of the finessing（用策略对付某事） of thediplomatists. A crafty policy is not always the most skilful. Henry IV.did not have recourse to（求助于） craft. A diplomatist who is in ¬thehabit of resorting to falsehood ceases to inspire confidence and atonce loses the greater part of his authority.

A policy based upon immorality is antiquated and unworthy of modernsociety; it pre-supposes contempt for humanity, and an antagonism thatought not to exist between those who govern and those who are governed.The policy of free peoples ought not to resemble the policy of absolutesovereigns; it is founded upon the respect of legality.

Whatever the skeptics may say, craft and violence are not necessitiesof politics. As society becomes more enlightened, politics may attainto greater perfection. Corruption is not an indispensable method ofgovernment: liberty can exist without license, it is allowable to hopefor a state of things in which the administration will be impartial,the legislation equitable, the elections sincere, and in which industryand merit will be rewarded. The European Governments show better faithin respect to their financial engagements at the present day than inthe past; they are conscious that it is to their interest not to tamper（干预)with their coinage, and not to go bankrupt, and for the reason thatpublic confidence in their credit is their principal force. Why shouldthey not arrive at understanding that they ought to have the samerespect for liberty and human life as for the public debt?

The progress of public reasonableness is most of all to be counted uponto render(回报) politics more straightforward and more in accordance withequity. Politicians, assemblies, and sovereigns, knowing that they willbe called upon to give an exact account of their conduct before thetribunal（审理团） of public opinion, will become more circumspect in theemployment of expedients of a kind to arouse public indignation.Politics should serve an educational purpose as well as maintain orderand protect material interests. Men are governed by ideas andsentiments as well as by appeals to their interests and to force. Alofty sentiment does not spoil politics. The great advances made in thesphere of politics have been advances of a philosophical order and havebeen due to an application of Christian philosophy. Unprincipledpolitics are Pagan politics, and their result is not the progress ofsociety. The true policy consists in an application of reason to theaffairs of the State.

Skepticism has brought into existence at the present day a generationof politicians who set more store upon palpable realities than uponprinciples. A policy of expedients and of vulgar(粗俗的) satisfactions is theoutcome of skepticism. The change that has taken place in our politicalmorals has deep and remote causes. A people that used to be chivalrous,that despised money, that was fired with ardor for noble causes, nowfor political liberty, now for military glory, does not becomepositively skeptical, indifferent to principles, and attached tomaterial interests in a day. This change of character is the result ofthe numerous deceptions it has experienced, of the frequent revolutionsit has undergone, but also of the weakening of spiritual beliefs.

"When a republic is corrupt," says Montesquieu, "none of the evils thatcrop up（出现） can be remedied, except by removing the corruption andreinstating principles; any other corrective is useless or a freshevil." The suppression of the parliamentary regime would not be aremedy; the establishment of a dictatorship would be a fresh evil and aworse evil. The true remedy consists in a return to principles.Politics, like human life, need to be spiritualized unless they are tofall into the mire and to remain there. To change the persons composingthe political world would be insufficient, unless a moral reform beaffected at the same time. Clearly if the new politicians were asdevoid of （完全没有）principles as the old, all that would have been done wouldhave been to exchange fat for lean kine, who in turn would wish to waxfat. Between fatted skeptics and lean skeptics the difference is butslight, or if there be any difference it is rather in favor of theformer. Obviously satiated skeptics are less dangerous than skepticswhose appetites are keen, because it may be hoped that, having lookedafter their own interests, they will at last look after those of thecountry. This, according to Saint Simon, was the cynical remark made byMaison when the direction of the finances was taken from him. "They aremaking a mistake," he exclaimed, "for I had looked after my owninterests and was going to look after theirs."

A return to principles and moral beliefs and the substitution of ideasfor appetites are, in consequence, the true remedies for that hideousmalady political corruption. It is only in the power of great passionsto drive petty（琐碎的） passions from the field. As long as noble sentiments,love of country and of liberty and purifying beliefs, are not revivedin a country the parliamentary atmosphere will remain vitiated（变质，败坏）.

Doubtless to exercise authority it is not sufficient to be abovereproach; a clear intellect, tact, and experience are necessary.Talent, however, without morality is insufficient, and mereintelligence is no preservative against moral backslidings. Nobodywould entrust his daughters or his fortune to the care of a clever butdissolute and extravagant man. Why then confide the country and thepublic fortune to the care of men of pleasure, who easily develop intomen whose sole concern is money? When a money- and pleasure-loving mandeclares himself a friend of the people, who can believe in hissincerity? Affection is not proved by words, but by acts. The truesentiments of politicians are not to be judged by their professions offaith or their humanitarian speeches, but by their character and theirhabitual conduct. The probity expected of the head of a Governmentinvolves not only his own personal integrity, but the choice on hispart of men of integrity for his Ministers. "If we would pass for menof integrity," says Cicero, "we should not only display probityourselves, but exact it of those about us."

Statesmen would avoid many political errors if they were morerespectful of justice; their political errors are often moral errors;their good sense and their skillfulness suffer in proportion（相符，符合比例） as theyswerve（突然转向） from the dictates of equity: they abandon themselves to passionsthat cloud（毁坏） their intelligence. Just ideas and wise resolutions areinspired by an upright conscience, whose qualities influence theintelligence. To be a man of good sense it is sufficient to be anhonest man.

By again becoming moral, politics would be brought back into unison（合唱，比喻一致的协调行动）with common-sense, and would be cured of two serious diseases calledthe Socialist madness and the Anarchist madness that are the result ofthe sophisms by which we are inundated, and of the letting loose ofevil passions. We lack reasonableness at the present day; our brainsare disordered; our good sense, a quality that used to be particularlydistinctive of the French, has been affected by innumerablephilosophical, economical, and political sophisms that reach us fromGermany, Italy, England, the East, and even from India. Good sense hasceased to guide our thoughts and actions since we have adopted Germanpessimism and socialism, English evolutionism, Italian skepticism,Russian Nihilism, and Asiatic Buddhism. Let us become Frenchmen againand Christians, let us return to the school of good sense and morality.

The malady from which contemporary society suffers is a moral diseaserather than a political or economical disease. It is doubtless usefulto improve institutions and to reform abuses but how much morenecessary it is to reform morals and to give tone to men's minds byhealthy ideas and moral beliefs. If society is to be saved from thecorruption by which it is invaded, and from the revolutionary barbarismby which it is threatened, spiritualist teachings must be restored tothe place they formerly occupied in men's minds and in politics; thisis the only way to save them from the clutches of envy and hatred.

The sentiment of duty and of personal responsibility must bere-established in the public mind and in the education of the young. Itis necessary to fight against the sophisms which lead to the absorptionof the individual by the State, and to the conversion of every citizeninto a part of a colossal machine that produces wealth and distributesit according to each man's needs. The true remedy for the crises we aretraversing is a return to the old morality, which teaches thatworking-men in common with their employers are intended to do theirduty, and to labor, and have their responsibilities. What otherdoctrine will teach the rich the spirit of sacrifice, and the voluntaryrenunciation of what is superfluous, and the poor the obligation ofpersonal effort, the merit of patience, and respect for legality?

It is not by encouraging atheism and materialism that a Governmenteffects an improvement in morals, that it stills passions and relieveswretchedness. Hostility to religion is contrary to sound politics.Merely from the utilitarian point of view the blindness and perversityare incomparable of those incredulous fanatics who would rob theirfellows of the beliefs in which they find consolation. Who can denythat the religious sentiment conduces to morality? The more religiouscitizens there are in a State, the fewer are the restless spirits, theSocialists and the Anarchists. In a period of skepticism, materialism,positivism, evolutionism, and nihilism, who can dream of denying theimmense services rendered by Christianity in inculcating the dignity ofhuman nature and the obligatory character of duty, and in opposing theworship of an ideal to the worship of the golden calf? In a society inwhich there is talk of nothing else but of the struggle for life, ofthe rights conferred by might, of the elimination of the weak, of thedisgrace of poverty, of the all-powerfulness of wealth, religionteaches self-sacrifice, respect, and love for the poor, andresponsibility before God and before the conscience. At a period inwhich Socialism, grown more and more threatening, demands that theState should be omnipotent, Christianity again performs a useful workin standing out for the rights of the human being and the rights of theconscience, and in setting limits to the action of the State. Ifspiritual beliefs were not regaining ¬their hold over men'sminds one would be forced to tremble for the future of society, for"there comes a day when truths that have been scorned announcethemselves by thunder-claps."

Nations, too, in their mutual relations, have every interest not toseparate politics from morality. A sound policy, no less than morality,dictates to them justice and charitableness, which are alone capable ofpreserving peace and with it the benefits it carries in its train. Thepolicy that teaches nations that they should envy, hate, and injureeach other, that their conduct should be solely guided by theirinterests, and that the difficulties that crop up between them shouldbe settled by force alone, such a policy is criminal and mistaken. Thestatesmen who counsel this narrow and egoistical, this envious andmalevolent policy, are shortsighted, they are merely alive to theinterests of the moment that are a source of division, but they areblind to the interests which the peoples have in common, and above allto the disastrous consequences of antagonism and war; they do not keepin view the benefits of peace and the horrors of war.

How far preferable to an envious and ambitious policy that dividesnations would be a just, friendly, and moderate policy that would bringthem together! How far happier the nations would be if they would ceaseto lend themselves to a revengeful and high-handed policy! What a pitch（最高点）of prosperity Europe would have reached if, realizing the project ofHenry IV., it had applied to politics the rules of good sense andChristian morality. The aspect of the world would be changed if thenations, considering themselves members of the same family, wouldbanish（放逐） violence and craft from their councils. The policy of Christianpeoples is still Pagan: it must become Christian if the world is toenjoy peace.

Carried away by his somewhat excessive enthusiasm for military glory,M. Thiers has remarked: “What purpose would the strength of nationsserve if it were not expended in attempts to gain the mastery over eachother?" It seems to me, however, that the strength of nations might bemore usefully employed than in realizing dreams of conquest, which areso dearly paid for in money and blood, and which end in disasters andcatastrophes. Every time that a nation has sought to conquer othernations, it has caused torrents of blood to flow without profit toitself. All those who have entertained dreams of conquest have met withfailure. To establish their supremacy Charles V. and Napoleon I. causedmillions of men to perish, and they were unable to attain their goal:the former died in a convent, the latter on the rocks of Saint Helena;Spain and France were ruined by their ambitious policy. To how manyconquerors may not these words of the Bible be applied: "The hammerthat shattered the nations of the universe has itself been broken inpieces."

A policy that aims at international equilibrium ¬is better thana policy of conquest. Empires that are too vast cannot last; theysuccumb（屈从）, sooner or later, to a coalition between the other nations.That one nation should rule over another is always a danger to thecommon liberty, for a nation that is too powerful, like a too powerfulsovereign, has a difficulty in keeping within the limits of a wisemoderation. If the desire for domination be of value as a motive forcein politics, why should not moral domination achieved through science,literature, and institutions be made the object of the activity ofnations?

Skeptics are disposed to smile when they hear moralists express thehope that international wars will cease, and that arbitration will takethe place of recourse to force. Lord Salisbury, however, who at onetime considered this hope a dream, is now of opinion that it isrealizable. "Civilization," he has said, "has substituted law courtdecisions for duels between private persons and conflicts between thegreat. International wars are destined in the same way to give place tothe courts of arbitration of a more advanced civilization." In 1883Switzerland and the ¬United States pledged themselves to submitto a court of arbitration all difficulties arising between them duringa period of thirty years. In 1888 France contracted a similarengagement with the Equatorial Republic. In 1890 the plenipotentiariesof seventeen American Republics, assembled at Washington, admitted theprinciple of permanent arbitration.

It may be hoped, in consequence, that war will become rarer and rarerin proportion to the progress of civilization and of the moral andeconomical solidarity existing between different nations. The newengines of war, the destructive force of which augments every day, alsocontribute to the maintenance of peace, because peoples and sovereignsrecoil（畏缩） in terror from the frightful consequences of a war waged withsuch formidable engines of destruction. The tendency of public opinionis more and more to compel Governments to maintain peace. It may behoped in consequence that war, which is already more civilized, willbecome of rare occurrence.

Still, as peoples and sovereigns have a tendency to become intoxicatedby success, historians and moralists ought to unite their efforts tocombat their unruly impulses. Historians, who habitually admiresuccess, too often forget, when narrating wars, to inquire into theirmorality and utility; they almost always exalt the conquerors, and inthis way corrupt public opinion, by accustoming it to allow itself tobe dazzled by success. They should keep a little of the admiration theylavish upon conquerors for the upright men who have given evidence oftheir love of humanity and of their respect for human life.

As to the moralists, it is necessary that they should unceasinglycombat the sophisms of immoral politics by declaring that reasons ofState are the negation of reason; that the object of government is notto divide but to unite; that the lesser morality does not destroy thehigher morality, because there are not two moralities; that publicsafety lies in justice alone: that the end does not justify the means;that illegitimate means result in the end being unattained; that rightis superior to might; that justice is the supreme law; that the maximthat right is on the side of the strongest is a maxim good enough forwolves but not for men.

Science without conscience, Rabelais has said, is the ruin of the soul. Politics without morality are the ruin of society.

COMMENT:
Bravo!~~
It must be the longest law-realated article, wonderful as well, i've ever read. However,I'm not encouraged by its length to finish it successively, which in turn, diminish the whole image,which is already limited by my major context, of the article i've attained.
According to the author, politics is deeply related to the morality. As a result, violence and iniquity which assume the safety of people are merely an excuse of the rulers' own interest.Meanwhile, morality as the author defines shoule be Christian rather than the mixture of other kinds.
Of all the novel concepts he puts, i'm more interested in the purpose of one nation, which is far away from the conquest . Because when one empire gets expaned, how to rebuild a limits moderarion is one big headache, let alone the expense it took within the course of conquering.And today, peace is more likely to put forward since people are aware the aftermath of a war and tend to recoil in terror from it. Thus, building a morality-based politics serves a critical role.

splendidsunUID: 2723757

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Comment:
In this article, the author thinks that politics is closely related with the morality. It is difficult to balance within these two sides. For long term, the author offers a solution to take Christian as the mortality which could ensure that the society could have a high standard of mortality. Also this would decrease the incidence of political crime.  Actually, the author’s idea is easy to understand. Kind-hearted citizens would comprise of a peaceful society which will have a steady political situation.
This article is an extraordinary template for us to study the writing skills and organization of paragraphs. This is also a good resource to grasp the points from. And some examples is also convergent to the conclusion that the author declares.