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3 1 0 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 3virtue of temperance or moderation. Men follow “Venus…without measure…in every time and place” (VII.91–93) and the most refined of men’s senses,touch, simply increases the itch that only Venus can scratch (VIII.112–17). Aswe have seen, however, Machiavelli, following Aristotle, associates an exquisitesense of touch with the possession of intellect and the apprehension oftruth. 66 The pig’s exaltation of the virtue of animal life necessarily entails thecelebration of mindlessness. The pig condemns both man’s political characterand his rational nature. This condemnation of the political character of man,however, obviates the need for the pig to compare beasts with men in regardto the fourth and final of the cardinal virtues, namely, justice. As the paradigmaticpolitical virtue, justice must be discounted in light of his negativeassessment of political life. 67Machiavelli’s novel moral teaching will invert that of the pig when itcomes to all of its chief points. It will recognize the naturalness of the desirefor gain and condemn only the failure to acquire the knowledge necessary tosatisfy that desire. It will insist that glory in this world is the supreme goodbeyond which none other may be had. Above all, however, it will deny theprinciple of the pig’s teaching, namely, that nature has as its end the (moral)good and that any deviation from that end, that is, the practice of (moral)evil, is contrary to nature. Nature will rather be shown to be indifferent if nothostile to the (moral) good and men’s “wickedness” to be compelled by theharshness of a near universal necessity. Men, he will argue, are by nature andin accordance with necessity “bad,” but their “badness,” if properly understoodand deployed, can lay the foundation of every civic good. A hostilenature and an inconstant fortune will be asserted to be the natural conditionsof man. And, in the wake of their discarding all of their teleological prejudices,men will be encouraged to set about mastering and subduing bothfortune and nature. 68 By these means Machiavelli sets out to undermine orcorrupt the dominance of the Christian teaching over the minds of men andlead them to a readiness to accept modes and orders that are “wholly new.”In The Ass we are given to understand that the novel moral teachingsoutlined above are the loud and asinine exterior of Machiavelli’s thought. The66Aristotle, De anima 421a 22–27.67His speech does conclude with a reference to the injuries that human beings inflict upon oneanother: “one hog to another hog causes no pain. …Man by another man is slain, crucified, and plundered”(VIII.142–44). This statement, however, is in praise not of the justice but the peacefulness ofanimals and involves a barely disguised reference to the fate of the “apolitical” Prince of Peace amongmen of the most intensely political and warlike disposition—the Romans.68Machiavelli, Prince, chap. 25; Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli, 167.