Despite of death, that lives upon my grave,
To dark dishonor's use, thou shalt not have."

A man who sacrificed his own conscience to the capricious will or freak
or fancy of a sovereign was accorded a low place in the estimate of the
Precepts. Such an one was despised as _nei-shin_, a cringeling, who
makes court by unscrupulous fawning or as _chô-shin_, a favorite who
steals his master's affections by means of servile compliance; these two
species of subjects corresponding exactly to those which Iago
describes,--the one, a duteous and knee-crooking knave, doting on his
own obsequious bondage, wearing out his time much like his master's ass;
the other trimm'd in forms and visages of duty, keeping yet his heart
attending on himself. When a subject differed from his master, the loyal
path for him to pursue was to use every available means to persuade him
of his error, as Kent did to King Lear. Failing in this, let the master
deal with him as he wills. In cases of this kind, it was quite a usual
course for the samurai to make the last appeal to the intelligence and
conscience of his lord by demonstrating the sincerity of his words with
the shedding of his own blood.

Life being regarded as the means whereby to serve his master, and its
ideal being set upon honor, the whole



EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF
A SAMURAI,

were conducted accordingly.