The answer is:
Machiavelli forces readers to carefully consider the meanings of the words merciful and mercy.
In the passage from "The Prince," the author Niccolò Machiavelli mentions the words mercy and merciful intending to make readers contemplate their meanings with special circumspection. Thus, <em>mercy </em>is compassion towards somebody one can hurt or punish, and <em>merciful </em>means benevolent. In that respect, Machiavelli suggests that an unsympathetic ruler can preserve power rather than a compassionate one.
I believe it is the compass. It aided sailors locate the direction to which they needed to go. Even before the age of exploration, people had ships capable of long voyages. As the years pass, the designed improved to an extent that they can travel farther.
This is where Lennie has gone back to that place by the river after he has killed Curley’s wife. Lennie expects that George will give him hell. he asks George if George is not going to do it. George says that he will not, but Lennie really wants him to.
