ds) not onely their honour
and goodes, but also they died miserably. When thou dydst reade
in thy schole, and I that time an hearer of thy doctrine, many
times I hearde thee say, that we ought to trauel to deserue
honour, rather than procure the same, esteemynge it vnlawfull to
get honour by meanes vnlawfull. He that is without credite,
ought to assay to procure credite. Hee that is with out honour,
ought to seeke honour. But the vertuous man hathe no neede of
noblenesse, ne hee himselfe, ne yet any other person can berieue
him of due honour. Thou knowest wel Plutarch, that the yere
past, the office of Consul was gyuen to Torquatus, and the
Dictatorship to Fabritius, who were so vertuous and so little
ambitious as not desyrous to receyue such charges, absented
themselues, although that in Rome, they might have ben in great
estimation, by reason of those offices, and yet neuerthelesse
without them they bee presently esteemed, loued and honoured:
and therefore I conceiue greater delight in Quintius Lincinatus,
in Scipio Affricanus, and good Marcus Portius, for contemning of
theyr offices, than for the victories which they atchieued: for
victories many times consist in fortune, and the not caryng for
honorable charge in onely wisedome. Semblably, thou thy selfe
art witnesse, that when myn vncle Cocceius Nerua was exiled to
Capua, he was more visited, and better serued, than when he was
at Rome: whereby may bee inferred, that a vertuous man may bee
exyled or banished, but honour he shall neuer want. The Emperour
Domitian (if you do remember) at the departure of Nerua, made me
many offers, and thee many fayre promises to entertain thee in
his house, and to send mee into Almayne, which thou couldest not
abyde, and much lesse consent, deeming it to be greater honour
with Nerua to be exiled, than of Domitian to be fauored.
I sweare by the Gods immortall, that when the good olde man
Nerua sent me the ensigne of the Empyre, I was vtterly ignorant
thereof, and voyd of hope to atteyne the same: for I was
aduertised from the Senate, that Fuluius sued for it, and that
Pamphilius went about to buy it. I knew also that the Consul
Dolobella attempted to enioy it: then sith the gods did permit,
that I should be Emperour, and that myne vncle Nerua did
commaund the same, the Senate approued it, and the common wealth
would haue it to be so: and sith it was the generall consent of
all men, and specially your aduyse, I haue greate hope that