Honour is a title or grace given by the spirit of virtue to the desert
of valour in the defence of truth; it is wronged in baseness and abused
in unworthiness, and endangered in wantonness and lost in wickedness. It
nourisheth art and crowneth wit, graceth learning and glorifieth wisdom;
in the heraldry of heaven it hath the richest coat, being in nature
allied unto all the houses of grace, which in the heaven of heavens
attend the King of kings. Her escutcheon is a heart, in which in the
shield of faith she bears on the anchor of hope the helmet of salvation:
she quarters with wisdom in the resolution of valour, and in the line of
charity she is the house of justice. Her supporters are time and
patience, her mantle truth, and her crest Christ treading upon the globe
of the world, her impress _Corona mea Christus_. In brief, finding her
state so high that I am not able to climb unto the praise of her
perfection, I will leave her royalty to the register of most princely
spirits, and in my humble heart thus only deliver my opinion of
her:--She is virtue's due and grace's gift, valour's wealth and
reason's joy.