This, be it remembered, is the advice of Machiavelli, the the Florentine patriot, to Lorenzo de' Medici, the Florentine tyrant, who has recently resumed his seat upon the neck of that irrepressible republic.
Hitherto we have been considering how the state acquired by a conqueror should be incorporated with his previous dominions.

The next section of Machiavelli's discourse is by far the most interesting.

It treats of principalities created by the arms, personal qualities, and good fortune of adventurers.

Italy alone in the sixteenth century furnished examples of these tyrannies: consequently that portion of the _Principe_ which is concerned with them has a special interest for students of the Renaissance.

Machiavelli begins with the founders of kingdoms who have owed but little to fortune and have depended on their own forces.