Which I must either leaue vnrequited; or recompense affection with affection, & recommende me vnto you with your owne Stratageme, fitter to animate fresher spirites, or to whet finer edges. Little other vse can I, or the world reape of those great-great commendations, wherewith you, and diuers other Orient wittes haue newly surcharged me, by tendring so many kinde Apologies in my behalfe, and presenting so many sharpe inuectiues against my aduersaries: vnlesse also you purposed to make me notably ashamed of my c[=o]fessed insufficiency, guilty of so manifold imperfecti[=o]s, in respect of the least semblance of those imputed singularities. Whatsoeuer your intendment in an ouerflowing affection was, I am none of those, that greedily surfet of selfe-conceit, or sottishly hugge their owne babyes. _Narcissus_ was a fayre boy, but a boy: _Suffenus_ a noble braggard, but a braggard: _Nestor_ a sweet-tongued old-man, but an Old-man: and _Tully_ (whom I honour in his vertues, and excuse in his ouersightes) an eloquent Selfe-loouer, but a Selfe-loouer. He that thought to make himselfe famous with his ouerweening and brauing _Il'e, Il'e, Il'e_, might perhaps nourrish an aspiring imagination to imitate his _Ego, Ego, Ego_, so gloriously reiterated in his gallant Orations. Some smirking minions are fine fellowes in their owne heades, and some cranke Princockes iolly men in their owne humours: as desperate in resolution, as the dowtiest ranke of Errant knightes; and as coye in phantasie, as the nicest sort of simpring damosels, that in their owne glasses find no creature so bewtifull, or amiable, as their delitious selues. I haue beheld, / & who hath not seene some lofty conceites, towring very high, & coying themselues sweetly on their owne amounting winges, young feathers of old Icarus? The gay Peacocke is woondrously inamored vpon the glittering fanne of his owne gorgious taile, and weeneth himselfe worthy to be crowned the Prince of byrdes, and to be enthronished in the chaire of supreme excellency. Would Christ, the greene Popiniay, with his newfangled iestes, as new as Newgate, were not asmuch to say, as his owne Idol. Queint wittes must haue a Priuiledge to prank-vp their dainty limmes, & to fawne vpon their owne tricksie deuises. But they that vnpartially know themselues, seuerely examine their owne abilities; vprightly counterpoise defectes with sufficiencies; frankly confesse the greatest part of their knowledge to be the least part of their ignorance; aduisedly weigh the difficulties of the painfull and toylesome way, the hard maintenance of credit easely gotten, the impossible satisfaction of vnsatisfiable expectation, the vncertaine ficklenesse of priuate Phantasie, & the certaine brittlenesse of publique Fame; are not lightly bewitched with a fonde doting vpon their owne plumes. And they that deepely consider vpon the weakenesse of inward frailty, the casualtie of outward fortune, the detraction