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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: Machiavel. And what was his reply?
Regent. As if it were a mere trifle, an affair of no moment, he answered:
"Were the Netherlanders but satisfied as to their constitution! The rest
would soon follow."
Machiavel. There was, perhaps, more truth than discretion or piety in his
words. How can we hope to acquire and to maintain the confidence of the
Netherlander, when he sees that we are more interested in appropriating
his possessions, than in promoting his welfare, temporal or spiritual? Does
the number of souls saved by the new bishops exceed that of the fat
benefices they have swallowed? And are they not for the most part
foreigners? As yet, the office of stadtholder has been held by
Egmont |
