e admiration of fools, the idols of
parasites, and the slaves of their own vaunts.

Of Honor And Reputation

THE winning of honor, is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth,
without disadvantage. For some in their actions, do woo and effect honor
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 as 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 honor, 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 bis
honor, that entereth into any action, the failing wherein may disgrace
him, more than the carrying of it through, can honor him. Honor that
is gained and broken upon another, hath the quickest reflection, like
diamonds cut with facets. And therefore, let a man contend to excel any
competitors of his in honor, in outshooting them, if he can, in their
own bow. Discreet followers and servants, help much to reputation. Omnis
fama a domesticis emanat. Envy, which is the canker of honor, is best
extinguished by declaring 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 honor, are these:
In the first place are conditores imperiorum, founders of states and
commonwealths; such as were Romulus, Cyrus, Caesar, Ottoman, Ismael.
In the second place are legislatores, lawgivers; which are also called
second founders, or perpetui principes, because they govern by their
ordinances after they are gone; such were Lycurgus, Solon, Justinian,
Eadgar, Alphonsus of Castile, the Wise, that made the Siete Partidas.
In the third place are liberatores, or salvatores, such as compound the
long miseries of civil wars, or deliver their countries from servitude
of strangers or tyrants; as Augustus Caesar, Vespasianus, Aurelianus,
Theodoricus, King Henry the Seventh of England, King Henry the Fourth of
France. In the fourth place are propagatores or propugnatores imperii;
such as in honorable wars en