AN ESSAY OF VALOUR.
I am of opinion that nothing is so potent either to procure or merit
love as valour, and I am glad I am so, for thereby I shall do myself
much ease, because valour never needs much wit to maintain it. To speak
of it in itself, it is a quality which he that hath shall have least
need of; so the best league between princes is a mutual fear of each
other. It teacheth a man to value his reputation as his life, and
chiefly to hold the lie insufferable, though being alone he finds no
hurt it doth him. It leaves itself to other's censures; for he that
brags of his own, dissuades others from believing it. It feareth a sword
no more than an ague. It always makes good the owner; for though he be
generally held a fool, he shall seldom hear so much by word of mouth,
and that enlargeth him more than any spectacles, for it makes a little
fellow to be called a tall man. It yields the wall to none but a woman,
whose weakness is her prerogative; or a man seconded with a woman, as an
usher which always goes before his betters. It makes a man become the
witness of his own words, to stand to whatever he hath said, and
thinketh it a reproach to commit his reviling unto the law. It
furnisheth youth with action, and age with discourse, and both by
futures; for a man must never boast himself in the present tense. And to
come nearer home, nothing draws a woman like to it, for valour towards
men is an emblem of an ability towards women, a good quality signifies a
better.
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