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206 IL PRINCIPE.
CAPITOLO SESTO.
DE' PRINCIPATI NUOVI CHE CON LE PROPRIE
ARMI E VlRTI_I SI ACQUISTANO.
NoN si maravigli alcuno se nel parlare che io far6
5 de' principati al tutto nuovi e di principe e di Stato io
addurr6 grandissimi esempi: perch_ camminando gli
uomini quasi sempre per le vie battute da altri, e procedendo
helle azioni loro con le imitazioni, n_ si potendo le vie d' altri
al tutto tenere, n_ alla virt_a di quelli che tu imiti aggiugnere,
io debbe un uomo prudente entrare sempre per le vie battute
da uomini grandi, e quelli che sono staff eccellentissimi imitare,
acciocch_ se la sua virt/a non v' arriva, almeno ne renda
spegnerli e sbarbarli in modo, che di loro non restassi reliquia;
e adoperare a questo ferro e veleno, secondo che venissi pi_ commodo,
altrimenti ogni scintilla che ne resta, ti affatica sempre e ti
travaglia/&c. [Del Reggimento di Firenze ; Op. Ined. ii. 215].
i. Machiavelh here passes to the discusmon of the question which he
had most at heart--the establishment of a new principality. The
reader will notice here both a general and a particular part; an
attempt made, on the one hand, to treat the subject scientifically, as
one branch of a general discussion, and on the other the predominant
interest of considering the possibility of establishing a new monarchy
under the given pohtical conditions at thenme Machiavelli was writing.
This becomes even more clear in the following chapter. The scheme
was, in Machiavelli's eyes, quite possible, though he was also aware of
the difficulties to be surmounted [see especially the letter to Vettori
of January 31, I515, in Op. viii. 145], but that he never lost hope of its
ultimate realisationis clear from the way in which he speaks of Giovanni
de' Medici in 1526 [Letter to Guicciardini, March 15; Op. viii. 192].
6. camminando gli uomini sempre per le vie battuto.., imitare]
It will be convenient to give here an account of some of the mare
features of Machiavelli's theory of history, as they form the postulates
upon which the whole argument rests. Starting with the
present passage, we find imitation, which is natural to man, given as
one of the causes which shape history. Imitation, acting together
with other causes, will naturally lead to a resemblance between
different ages, but the resemblance is not mainly determined by
imitation, but rather by the operation of the constant elements in
human nature, which influence action in all ages alike. There will
be first a forward and then a backward movement, and at the close of
a cycle the world will return again, with certain modifications, it is true,