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      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

Niccolò Machiavelli to the Most Illustrious Lorenzo, Son of Piero De’ Medici

Chapter 1 The several sorts of Governments, and after what manner they are obtained

Chapter 2 Of Hereditary Principalities

Chapter 3 Of Mixed Principalities

Chapter 4 Why the Kingdom of Darius, usurped by Alexander, did not rebel against his Successors, after Alexander was dead

Chapter 5 How such Cities and Principalities are to be governed who lived under their own Laws before they were subdued

Chapter 6 Of Principalities acquired by one’s own proper conduct and arms

Chapter 7 Of new Principalities acquired by accident and the supplies of other people

Chapter 8 Of such as have arrived at their Dominion by wicked and unjustifiable means

Chapter 9 Of Civil Principality

       Chapter 10 How the strength of all Principalities is to be computed

       Chapter 11 Of Ecclesiastical Principalities

       Chapter 12 How many Forms there are of Military Discipline, and of those Soldiers which are called Mercenary

       Chapter 13 Of Auxiliaries, Mixed, and Natural Soldiers

       Chapter 14 The Duty of a Prince in relation to his Militia

       Chapter 15 Of such things as render Men (especially Princes) worthy of Blame or Applause

       Chapter 16 Of Liberality and Parsimony

       Chapter 17 Of Cruelty and Clemency, and whether it is best for a Prince to be beloved or feared

       Chapter 18 How far a Prince is obliged by his Promise

       Chapter 19 That Princes ought to be cautious of becoming either odious or contemptible

       Chapter 20 Whether Citadels, and other things which Princes many times do, be profitable or dangerous

       Chapter 21 How a Prince is to demean himself to gain reputation

       Chapter 22 Of the Secretaries of Princes

       Chapter 23 How Flatterers are to be avoided

       Chapter 24 How it came to pass that the Princes of Italy have most of them lost their dominions

       Chapter 25 How far in human affairs Fortune may avail, and in what manner she may be resisted

       Chapter 26 An Exhortation to deliver Italy from the Barbarians

       Classic Literature: Words and Phrases Adapted from the Collins English Dictionary

       About the Author

       History of Collins

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

Niccolò Machiavelli to the Most Illustrious Lorenzo, Son of Piero De’ Medici

      Those who desire the favour of a prince do commonly introduce themselves by presenting him with such things as he either values much or does more than ordinarily delight in; for which reason he is frequently presented with horses, arms, cloth of gold, jewels, and such ornaments as are suitable to his quality and grandeur. Being ambitious to present myself to your Highness with some testimony of my devotions towards you, in all my wardrobe I could not find anything more precious (at least to myself) than the knowledge of the conduct and achievements of great men, which I learned by long conversation in modern affairs and a continual investigation of old. After long and diligent examination, having reduced all into a small volume, I do presume to present to your Highness; and though I cannot think it a work fit to appear in your presence, yet my confidence in your bounty is such, I hope it may be accepted, considering I was not capable of more than presenting you with a faculty of understanding in a short time, what for several years, with infinite labour and hazard, I had been gathering together. Nor have I beautified or adorned it with rhetorical ornations, or such outward embellishments as are usual in such descriptions. I had rather it should pass without any approbation than owe it to anything but the truth and gravity of the matter. I would not have it imputed to me as presumption, if an inferior person, as I am, pretend not only to treat of, but to prescribe and regulate the proceedings of princes; for, as they who take the landscape of a country, to consider the mountains and the nature of the higher places do descend ordinarily into the plains, and dispose themselves upon the hills to take the prospect of the valleys, in like manner, to understand the nature of the people it is necessary to be a prince, and to know the nature of princes it is as requisite to be of the people. May your Highness, then, accept this book with as much kindness as it is presented and if you please diligently and deliberately to reflect upon it you will find in it my extreme desire that your Highness may arrive at that grandeur which fortune and your accomplishments do seem to presage; from which pinnacle of honour, if your Highness vouchsafes at any time to look down upon things below, you will see how unjustly and how continually I have been exposed

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