《君主论·第十三章·援军·混合军与自己的军队》第5节
Charles VII of France, surnamed “The Victorious,” born 1403, died 1461. Louis XI, son of the above, born 1423, died 1483. But the scanty wisdom of man, on entering into an affair which looks well at first, cannot discern the poison that is hidden in it, as I have said above of hectic fevers. Therefore, if he who rules a principality cannot recognize evils until they are upon him, he is not truly wise; and this insight is given to few. And if the first disaster to the Roman Empire should be examined, it will be found to have commenced only with the enlisting of the Goths; because from that time the vigour of the Roman Empire began to decline, and all that valour which had raised it passed away to others. “Many speakers to the House the other night in the debate on the reduction of armaments seemed to show a most lamentable ignorance of the conditions under which the British Empire maintains its existence. When Mr Balfour replied to the allegations that the Roman Empire sank under the weight of its military obligations, he said that this was ‘wholly unhistorical.’ He might well have added that the Roman power was at its zenith when every citizen acknowledged his liability to fight for the State, but that it began to decline as soon as this obligation was no longer recognised.”—Pall Mall Gazette, 15th May 1906.
注释摘要
这段论证承接前文法国军队构成的例子，马基雅维利要进一步做的事，是把一个具体的军事错误提升为一条关于政治判断力的普遍规律。查理七世在百年战争中依靠炮兵与常备军把英国人逐出法国，进而建立了由王室直接控制的骑兵与步兵队伍，这是近代法国的立国根基之一。他的儿子路易十一继位后，为省事或出于对内贵族的猜疑，废除了步兵体系，转而大量雇佣瑞士人。表面看这是一个精打细算的选…