He begins by saying "I say therefore willingly that there are two kinds of history, public and secret..." he then discusses the causes of war and claims that there are just wars but there are also wars fought for utility and for sentiment "...for the best advice does not always prevail, [and] more often a king acts as a man than a king, and things of great importance are decided by small causes."
So he describes how history can be written. "There are thus two rules for [writing] history, but which cannot be equally observed in [writing] the one and the other kind of history: the rule of public history is to say nothing which is false, [whereas the rule] of secret history, on the other hand, is to omit nothing which is true; the first [kind of] history thus appears incomplete. But this is called for by the nature of things...many things remain secret in the acts of the powerful and in the causes of treaties, especially because often facts which pass unobserved have a greater effect than is thought."
It is true, leaving out important details does make a difference in how history is perceived. He then discusses what kinds of things are often left out of history:
"Often, too, a night [on which] the prince has slept badly, after which he has made rash decisions, because of an unsuitable mental and physical condition, is soon paid for by many thousands of unfortunates with their blood. Often, the abuse of power by a woman is that which pushes a husband or lover to act; more often the inclinations of ministers are communicated to their sovereigns. And it must be admitted that, just as in the theater it would be unsuitable for stage machinery to be seen, so too history would sometimes lose part of its beauty, if one always observed its real causes; and it appears that heroes have acted on the basis of childish inclinations, or because of a passion for woman, or even because of servile greed. In truth, we are reading about the deeds of men, not of Gods; and it is sufficient for their glory and the records of posterity that there remain many actions carried out with wisdom, courage and circumspection. Bad examples are best ignored from time to time."
Well, it is best to color history to highlight the good and ignore the bad. Continues to be true. If one were to understand the machinations and motivations behind all political choices we might not like what we see. And as he says "bad examples are best ignored from time to time." We wouldn't want to have a discontented populace, especially if they were educated. Then the Crisis of Democracy would be under way again. It would be a tragedy of monumental proportions if "value-oriented" young intellectuals ever learned the truth, they might question authority and then where would government be? One can hardly even imagine a world in which the secret histories were revealed and power of knowledge truly given to the unruly populace.
[quotes from Leibniz, Political Writings ed. Patrick Riley, (Cambridge, 2nd ed. 1988). the parts in square brackets are Riley's additions.]
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