To the world I present them, to which I am nothing indebted:  neither have others that were, (Fortune changing) sped much better in any age.  For prosperity and adversity have evermore tied and untied vulgar affections.  And as we see it in experience, that dogs do always bark at those they know not, and that it is their nature to accompany one another in those clamors:  so it is with the inconsiderate multitude; who wanting that virtue which we call honesty in all men, and that especial gift of God which we call charity in Christian men, condemn without hearing, and wound without offence given:  led thereunto by uncertain report only; which his Majesty truly acknowledged for the author of all lies.  “Blame no man,” saith Siracides, “before thou have inquired the matter:  understand first, and then reform righteously.  ‘Rumor, res sine teste, sine judice, maligna, fallax’; Rumor is without witness, without judge, malicious and deceivable.”  This vanity of vulgar opinion it was, that gave St. Augustine argument to affirm, that he feared the praise of good men, and detested that of the evil.  And herein no man hath given a better rule, than this of Seneca; “Conscientiae satisfaciamus:  nihil in famam laboremus, sequatur vel mala, dum bene merearis.”  “Let us satisfy our own consciences, and not trouble ourselves with fame:  be it never so ill, it is to be despised so we deserve well.”

For myself, if I have in anything served my Country, and prized it before my private, the general acceptation can yield me no other profit at this time, than doth a fair sunshine day to a sea-man after shipwreck; and the contrary no other harm, than an outrageous tempest after the port attained.  I know that I lost the love of many, for my fidelity towards Her,[1] whom I must still honor in the dust; though further than the defence of her excellent person, I never persecuted any man.  Of those that did it, and by what device they did it, He that is the Supreme Judge of all the world, hath taken the account:  so as for this kind of suffering, I must say With Seneca, “Mala opinio, bene parta, delectat."[2] As for other men; if there be any that have made themselves fathers of that fame which hath been begotten for them, I can neither envy at such their purchased glory, nor much lament mine own mishap in that kind; but content myself to say with Virgil, “Sic vos non vobis,"[3] in many particulars.  To labor other satisfaction, were an effect of frenzy, not of hope, seeing it is not truth, but opinion, that can travel the world without a passport.  For were it otherwise; and were there not as many internal forms of the mind, as there are external figures of men; there were then some possibility to persuade by the mouth of one advocate, even equity alone.