from
one counsellor's chamber to another, when by his good payment for his
pains he will be so saucy as to call himself a solicitor. But what a
taking are poor clients in when this too much trusted cunning companion,
better read in Piers Plowman than in Plowden, and in the play of
"Richard the Third" than in the pleas of Edward the Fourth, persuades
them all is sure when he is sure of all! and in what a misery are the
poor men when upon a _Nihil dicit_, because indeed this poor fellow
_Nihil potest dicere_, they are in danger of an execution before they
know wherefore they are condemned. But I wish all such more wicked than
witty unlearned in the law and abusers of the same, to look a little
better into their consciences, and to leave their crafty courses, lest
when the law indeed lays them open, instead of carrying papers in their
hands, they wear not papers on their heads; and instead of giving ear to
their client's causes or rather eyes into their purses, they have never
an ear left to hear withal, nor good eye to see withal, or at least
honest face to look out withal; but as the grasshoppers of Egypt, be
counted the caterpillars of England, and not the fox that stole the
goose, but the great fox that stole the farm from the gander.

A WORTHY SOLDIER.

A worthy soldier is the child of valour, who was born for the service of
necessity, and to bear the ensign of honour in the actions of worth. He
is the dyer of the earth with blood, and the ruin of the erections of
pride. He is the watch of wit, the advantage of time, and the
executioner of wrath upon the wilful offender. He disputes questions
with the point of a sword, and prefers death to indignities. He is a
lion to ambition, and a lamb to submission; he hath hope fast by the
hand, and treads upon the head of fear. He is the king's champion, and
the kingdom's guard; peace's preserver, and rebellion's terror. He makes
the horse trample at the sound of a trumpet, and leads on to a battle as
if he were going to a breakfast. He knows not the nature of cowardice,
for his rest is set up upon resolution; his strongest fortification is
his mind, which beats off the assaults of idle humours, and his life is
the passage of danger, where an undaunted spirit stoops to no fortune.
With his arms he wins his arms, and by his desert in the field his
honour in the court. In sum, in the truest manhood he is the true man,
and in the creation of honour a most worthy creature.