One of the first themes Machiavelli discussed is the imitating of past figures. He stated that the best way to succeed was to study those who had succeeded in the past, to find their flaws and learn from them, and to imitate their victorious actions. To express this, he wrote, "But for the exercise of the mind, the prince must read the histories, and in those consider the actions of excellent men, see how they carried themselves in the wars, examine the causes of their victories and losses, to be able to avoid the latter and imitate the former." This is supported by the fact that many famous figures that should be imitated were only triumphant in their time because they themselves had mimicked someone else before them that was also successful. "And above all to do as some excellent man has

done in the past, who took up imitating someone before his time who had been lauded and glorified, and always kept his deeds and actions close to him: as is said that Alexander the Great imitated Achilles, Caesar Alexander, Scipio Cyrus." This can also be seen when Russia tried to imitate the United States. Russia, trying to build a better government, imitated the United States' democracy, which was and is very successful. This is yet another example of how the successful are imitated. Machiavelli considered the knowledge of the actions of others who were successful the most valuable gift one could offer another. He himself offered this knowledge to a prince in order to win his favor. "Therefore, I, desiring to offer myself to your magnificence with some testimony of my services to it, have not found among the goods of my house anything I hold dearer or that I esteem as much as the understanding of the actions of great men, learned by long experience with modern things and continuous reading of ancient ones which I, having thought out at length and examined with great diligence and now reduced to a small volume, send to your magnificence." He wrote this as the introduction to the book, explaining why he had used it as a gift. He also stressed the importance of balancing cruelty and mercy as a major theme.

Machiavelli also explains the balance of mercy and cruelty that should be kept in a kingdom. He tells that though a prince should want to be considered merciful, he also should know not to use this mercy to his disadvantage. He stated that there is a point where one can be so merciful, that they are actually being cruel. "Consequently, a prince must not care about the infamy of his cruelty in order to keep his subjects united and faithful; because with very few examples he will be more merciful than those who, because of too much mercy, allow disorders to go on, from which spring killings or depredations: because these normally offend a whole collectivity, while those executions which come from the prince offend an individual." This means that at a point, one can be so merciful that disorders occur, and because he is not cruel and strict he

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Approximate Word count = 1460
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)