Lehal Library

People trying to attract the good will of a sovereign usually offer him something they care a lot about themselves, or something they’ve seen he particularly likes. So rulers are always being given horses, arms, gold brocades, jewels and whatever finery seems appropriate. Eager myself to bring Your Highness some token of my loyalty, I realized there was nothing more precious or important to me than my know- ledge of great men and their doings, a knowledge gained through long experience of contemporary affairs and a con- stant study of ancient history. Having thought over all I’ve learned, and analysed it with the utmost care, I’ve written everything down in a short book that I am now sending to Your Highness. And though this gift is no doubt unworthy of you, I feel sure the experience it contains will make it welcome, especially when you think that I could hardly offer anything better than the chance to grasp in a few hours what I have discovered and assimilated over many years of danger and discomfort. I haven’t prettified the book or padded it out with long sentences or pompous, pretentious words, or any of the irrelevant flourishes and attractions so many writers use; I didn’t want it to please for anything but the range and serious- ness of its subject matter. Nor, I hope, will you think it presumptuous that a man of low, really the lowest, station should set out to discuss the way princes ought to govern