Section XXXVIII
Advertisements for commanders.
The advantage of obedience.
Here such as have command may behold the many miseries that befall them, not onely by unexpected accidents and mischances, but also by contradictions and murmurs of their owne people, of all calamities the greatest which can befall a man of discretion and valour, and as difficult to be overcome; for, to require reason of the common sort, is, as the philosopher sayth, to seeke counsell of a madd man. Herein, as I sayd before, they resemble a stiffe necked horse, who taking the bridle in his teeth, carrieth the rider whether he pleaseth; so once possessed with any imagination, no reason is able to convince them. The best remedie I can propound, is to wish our nation in this poynt to be well advised, and in especiall, all those that follow the sea, ever having before their eyes the auncient discipline of our predecessors; who in conformitie and obedience to their chiefes and commanders, have beene a mirror to all other nations, with patience, silence, and suffering, putting in execution what they have beene commanded, and thereby gained the blessings due to such vertues, and leaving to posteritie perpetuall memories of their glorious victories. A just recompence for all such as conquer themselves, and subject their most specious willes to the will of their superiors.