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Because, as is stated above, he who has not first laid his

foundations may be able with great ability to lay them

afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect

and danger to the building. If, therefore, all the steps taken by

the duke be considered, it will be seen that he laid solid

foundations for his future power, and I do not consider it

superfluous to discuss them, because I do not know what better

precepts to give a new prince than the example of his actions;

and if his dispositions were of no avail, that was not his fault,

but the extraordinary and extreme malignity of fortune.