CHAP. 15.

Of those things in respect whereof men, and especially Princes are prais’d or disprais’d, 313

CHAP. 16.

Of Liberality and Miserableness, 315

CHAP. 17.

Of Cruelty and Clemency, and whether it is better to be belov’d or feared, 318

CHAP. 18.

In what manner Princes ought to keep their word, 321

CHAP. 19.

That Princes should take a care not to incur contempt or hatred, 325

CHAP. 20.

Whether the Citadels and many other things, which Princes make use of, are profitable or dammageable, 335

CHAP. 21.

How a Prince ought to behave himself to gain reputation, 339

CHAP. 22.

Touching Princes Secretaries, 343

CHAP. 23.

That Flatterers are to be avoyded, 344

CHAP. 24.

Wherefore the Princes of Italy have lost their States, 347

CHAP. 25.

How great power Fortune hath in humane affairs, and what means there is to resist it, 349

CHAP. 26.

An exhortation to free Italy from the Barbarions, 353

THE PRINCE

Written by

NICHOLAS MACHIAVELLI,
Secretary and Citizen of Florence.

CHAP.  I

How many sorts of Principalities there are, and how many wayes they are attained to.

All States, all Dominions that have had, or now have rule over men, have been and are, either Republiques or Principalities.  Principalities are either hereditary, whereof they of the blood of the Lord thereof have long time been Princes; or else they are new; and those that are new, are either all new, as was the Dutchy of Millan to Francis Sforce; or are as members adjoyned to the hereditary State of the Prince that gains it; as the Kingdom of Naples is to the King of Spain.  These Dominions so gotten, are accustomed either to live under a Prince, or to enjoy their liberty; and are made conquest of, either with others forces, or ones own, either by fortune, or by valor.

CHAP.  II

Of Hereditary Principalities.

I will not here discourse of Republiques, because I have other where treated of them at large:  I will apply my self only to a Principality, and proceed, while I weave this web, by arguing thereupon, how these Principallities can be governed and maintained.  I say then that in States of inheritance, and accustomed to the blood of their Princes, there are far fewer difficulties to keep them, than in the new:  for it suffices only not to transgress the course his Ancestors took, and so afterward to temporise with those accidents that can happen; that if such a Prince be but of ordinary industry, he shall allwaies be able to maintain himself in his State, unless by some extraordinary