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no dne feel surprised if, in what I am going to say of new principalities and of the prince and the state, I only cite examples furnished by the greatest personages. Men generally follow the beaten paths which others have formed, and their conduct is merely imitation. Now as we cannot in every respect become the same, nor arrive at the elevation of those whom we take for models, a wise man ought only to follow the paths traced by superior genius, and imitate those only who have excelled, in order that, if he does not equal them in every thing, he may in some respects at least approach them. He ought to act like the skilful archer, who finding the object of his dim too remote for a point blank shot, duly appreciating the strength of his arm, elevates his arrow higher than the object, only with the intent of reaching it.

I will in the first place observe that in a principality, entirely new, the degree of difficulty experienced by a prince in maintaining himself in it depends on his own perfonal qualities. From a