Every right-minded man desires to stand well in the eyes of those with whom he transacts business, and therefore he will give some trouble to all those devices for securing the good-will of men to which I have referred. If he finds in the course of his work that the prince himself or any one of his ministers is ill-disposed towards him or intractable in discussion, he must not on that account allow himself to imitate the fault, but must redouble his efforts in the contrary direction. Indeed he must behave as a good watchmaker would when his clock has gone out of order: he must labour to remove the difficulty, or at all events to circumvent its results. He must not be led aside by his own feelings. Prejudice is a great misinterpreter’s house in all public affairs. [Sidenote: _A High Ideal._] It might seem that the ideal which I now set up for the negotiator is one too high for any man to reach. It is true that no man can ever carry out his instructions without a fault, but unless he has before him an ideal as a guide he will find himself plunged in the midst of distracting affairs without any rule for his own conduct. Therefore I place before him these considerations: that despite all disappointments and exasperations he must act with _sang-froid_; he must work with patience to remove all obstacles that lie in his path, whether they are placed there by accident or act of God or by the evil design of men; he must preserve a calm and resolute mind when the conjunctures of events seem to conspire against him; and finally, he must remember that if once he permit his own personal or outrageous feelings to guide his conduct in negotiation he is on the sure and straight road to disaster. In a word, when events and men are unkind he must never despair of being able to change them, nor again when they smile upon his efforts must he cherish the illusion that their good favour will endure for ever. [Sidenote: _The Negotiator’s Twofold Function._]