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144 a proof of what I advance is, that in the diversity of causes followed by those who are in the pursuit of riches or glory, one prosecutes his object at random, the other with caution and prudence: one employs art, the other force; one is impetuosity itself, the other all patience; means by which each may severally succeed. It also happens that of two who follow the same route the one arrives at his object and the other does not; and that of two others whose dispositions are diametrically opposite, and the means they employ as different, they shąll equally prosper; which caprice in events can only arise from the times being favourable or otherwise to the line of conduct they severally pursued.

also frequently decide whether a prince conducts himself well or ill on any particular occasion. There are times when an extraordinary degree of prudence is necessary; there are others when the prince should know how to trust some things to chance; but there is nothing more difficult than for him on the spur of the occasion to change his conduct and character; sometimes from not being able to resist his old habits and inclinations, at others from want of resolution to quit a course in which he had always till then been successful.

Julius II. who was of a fiery and violent disposition, succeded in all his enterprises; doubtless,