On being reproved for the maxims contained in the work, Machiavelli replied, “If I taught princes how to tyrannize, I also taught the people how to destroy them”; and in these words posterity has vindicated the reputation of the talented Italian statesman and author.

Those who from a private station have ascended to the dignity of princes, by the favor of fortune alone, meet with few difficulties in their progress, but encounter many in maintaining themselves on the throne.  Obstructed by no impediments during their journey, they soar to a great height, but all the difficulties arise after they are quietly seated.  These princes are chiefly such as acquire their dominions by money or by favor.  Such were the men whom Darius placed in Greece, in the cities of Ionia and of the Hellespont, whom, for their own security and glory, he raised to the rank of sovereigns.

Such were the emperors who from a private station arrived at the empire by corrupting the soldiery.  They sustained their elevation only by the pleasure and fortune of those who advanced them, two foundations equally uncertain and insecure.  They had neither the experience nor the power necessary to maintain their position.  For, unless men possess superior genius or courage, how can they know in what manner to govern others who have themselves always been accustomed to a private station?  Deficient in knowledge, they will be equally destitute of power for want of troops on whose attachment and fidelity they can depend.  Besides, those states which have suddenly risen, like other things in nature of premature and rapid growth, do not take sufficient root in the minds of men, but they must fall with the first stroke of adversity; unless the princes themselves—­so unexpectedly exalted—­possess such superior talents that they can discover at once the means of preserving their good-fortune, and afterward maintain it by having recourse to the same measures which others had adopted before them.

To adduce instances of supreme power attained by good-fortune and superior talent, I may refer to two examples which have happened in our own time, viz., Francis Sforza and Caesar Borgia.  The former, by lawful means and by his great abilities, raised himself from a private station to the dukedom of Milan, and maintained with but little difficulty what had cost him so much trouble to acquire.  Caesar Borgia, Duke of Valentinois—­commonly called the duke of Valentino—­on the other hand, attained a sovereignty by the good-fortune of his father, which he lost soon after his father’s decease; though he exerted his utmost endeavors, and employed every means that skill or prudence could suggest, to retain those states which he had acquired by the arms and good-fortune of another.  For, though a good foundation may not have been laid before a man arrives at dominion, it may possibly be accomplished afterward by a ruler of superior mind; yet this can only be effected with much difficulty to the architect