55.

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 affect¹ honour and reputation, which sort of men are commonly much talked of but inwardly little admired. And some, contrariwise, darken their virtue in the show of it, so as² they be undervalued 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, as³ 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 husband⁴ 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 that is gained and broken upon another⁵ hath the quickest⁶ reflection, like diamonds cut with facets. And therefore let a man contend to excel any competitors of his in honour, in outshooting them, if he can, in their own bow. Discreet followers and servants help much to reputation: Omnis fama a domesticis emanat.⁷ Envy, which is the canker of honour, is best extinguished by declaring⁸ a man’s self in his ends rather to seek merit than fame, and by attributing a man’s successes rather to divine Providence and felicity, than to his own virtue or policy. The true marshalling of the degrees of sovereign honour are these. In the first place are conditores imperiorum, founders of states and commonwealths, such as were Romulus, Cyrus, Caesar, Ottoman, Ismael.⁹ In the second place are legislatores, lawgivers, which are also called second founders, or perpetui principes,¹⁰ because they govern by their ordinances after they are gone; such were Lycurgus, Solon, Justinian, Edgar, Alphonsus of Castile, the Wise, that made the Siete Partidas.¹¹ In the third place are liberatores, or salvatores,¹² such as compound the long miseries of civil wars, or deliver their countries from servitude of strangers or tyrants; as Augustus Caesar, Vespasianus¹³ Aurelianus,¹⁴ Theodoricus,¹⁵ King Henry the Seventh of England,¹⁶ King Henry the Fourth of France.¹⁷ In the fourth place are propagatores or propugnatores imperii,¹⁸ such as in honourable wars enlarge their territories or make noble defence against invaders. And in the last place are patres patriae,¹⁹ which reign justly, and make the times good wherein they live. Both which last kinds need no examples, they are in such number. Degrees of honour in subjects are, first, participes curarum,²⁰ those upon whom princes do discharge the greatest weight of their affairs, their right hands, as we call them. The next are duces belli,²¹ great leaders, such as are princes’ lieutenants and do them notable services in the wars. The third are gratiosi, favourites, such as exceed not this scantling,²² to be solace to the sovereign and harmless to the people. And the fourth, negotiis pares,²³ such as have great places under princes, and execute their places with sufficiency. There is an honour, likewise, which may be ranked amongst the greatest, which happeneth rarely; that is, of such as sacrifice themselves to death or danger for the good of their country, as was M. Regulus,²⁴ and the two Decii.²⁵