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THE PRINCE.

adequate remedies, but he did not foresee that át the time of his father's death he himself would be in danger of dying.

On considering all these measufes of the duke, I cannot reproach him with having omitted any thing; and I feel that he merits being proposed, as I have done, as a model for all those who by fortune or by foreign arms have acquired sovereignty. With great views, and still greater projects, his conduct could not be otherwise. The only circumstance which opposed his designs was the too sudden death of Alexander, and the illness with which he was himself attacked. Whoever, therefore, in a new principality, considers it necessary to be as sured of his enemies to make new friends, to conquer by force or cunning, to make himself beloved and feared by the people, respected and obeyed by the soldiery; to destroy all those who can or may be able to injure him; to promulgate new laws, in substitution of old ones; to be at once severe and indulgent, magnanimous and liberal; to disband a militia on which he cannot rely, and form a new one in its stead; and so to preserve the friendship of kings and princes, that they may be prompt to oblige and fearful to offend; he, I say, cannot find more recent examples for his guidance than those furnished by Borgia.

The only thing blamable in his conduct was on the election of Julius II,to the pontificate. He