OF HONOUR AND REPUTA TION.            2S1
 

LV.
 

OF HONOUR AND REPUTATION. -
 

The winning of honour is but the revealing of a
man's virtue and worth without disadvantage. For
some in their actions do woo and affect honour and
reputation, which sort of men are comm^only much
talked of, but inwardly little admired. And some,
contrariwise, darken their virtue in the show of It,
so as they be under-valued in opinion. If a man
perform that which hath not been attempted before,
or attempted and given over, or hath been achieved
but not with so good circumstance, he shall purchase
more honour than by effecting a matter of greater
difficulty or virtue, wherein he is but a follower. If
a man so temper his actions as in some one of them
he doth content every, faction or combination of
people, the music will be the fuller. A man is an ill
husband of his honour that entereth into any action,
the failing wherein may disgrace him more than the
carrying of it through  can  honour him.    Honour