On imitation
We have seen study and imitation be a virtue in painting, poetry, rhetoric, and courtiership. Here it is applied to politics:
“Every ruler should read history books, and in them he should study the actions of admirable men. He should see how they conducted themselves when at war, study why they won some battles and lost others, so he will know what to imitate and what to acoid. Above all he should set himself to imitate the actions of some admirable historical character, as great men have always imitated their glorious prefecessors, contrantly bearing in mind their actions and their ways of behaving” (Machiavelli 47).
