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Because the Romans did in these instances what all prudent

princes ought to do, who have to regard not only present

troubles, but also future ones, for which they must prepare with

every energy, because, when foreseen, it is easy to remedy them;

but if you wait until they approach, the medicine is no longer in

time because the malady has become incurable; for it happens in

this, as the physicians say it happens in hectic fever, that in

the beginning of the malady it is easy to cure but difficult to

detect, but in the course of time, not having been either

detected or treated in the beginning, it becomes easy to detect

but difficult to cure. Thus it happens in affairs of state, for

when the evils that arise have been foreseen (which it is only

given to a wise man to see), they can be quickly redressed, but

when, through not having been foreseen, they have been permitted

to grow in a way that every one can see them, there is no longer

a remedy.