Today's Stichomancy for Niccolo Machiavelli

The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne:

It is my belief, however, that had I attempted a different order of composition, my faculties would not have been found so pointless and inefficacious. I THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 49

The Scarlet Letter