Character is also taken for an Egyptian hieroglyphic, for an impress or short emblem; in little comprehending much.

To square out a character by our English level, it is a picture (real or personal) quaintly drawn in various colours, all of them heightened by one shadowing.

It is a quick and soft touch of many strings, all shutting up in one musical close; it is wit’s descant on any plain song.

THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE.

BY SIR H. W.[1]

   How happy is he born or taught
   That serveth not another’s will;
   Whose armour is his honest thought,
   And silly truth his highest skill!

   Whose passions not his masters are,
   Whose soul is still prepared for death;
   Untied unto the world with care
   Of princely love or vulgar breath.

   Who hath his life from rumours freed,
   Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
   Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
   Nor ruin make accusers great.

   Who envieth none whom chance doth raise
   Or vice, who never understood
   How deepest wounds are given with praise;
   Not rules of State, but rules of good.

   Who God doth late and early pray
   More of His grace than gifts to lend;
   Who entertains the harmless day
   With a well-chosen book or friend.

   This man is free from servile bands,
   Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
   Lord of himself, though not of lands,
   And having nothing he hath all.

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