The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-03-25
Moral Courage.

"Thinh'st thou there dwells no courage hut in breasts
That set their mail against the ringing spears
When helmets are struck DOWN. Thou little know'st
or Natures marvels."
Populous districts afford a much safer refuge
for the vices of society than thinly settled tracts
of country. The gathering of men together into
cities and towns, offers greater facilities for vice
and crime, and the temptations to wrong which
the pleasures of evil present in such communities
are too enticing to be resisted by a large class of
their inhabitants. Honolulu is not singular in
this respect. The great whaling depot of the
North Pacific, a rendezvous for the people of
every nation, with a population constantly
changing and fuctuating, it would indeed be
surprising if its streets did not abound in tempta-
tons, ready at all times to entice the unwary
traveller and drag him down to ruin. Every one
can recall to mind instances of promising young
men of good capability, fine prospects, and san
guine expectations of the future, who have been
enticed into the whirling vortex of licentiousness,
and insread of the fortune and happiness which
they expected to win, have found the goal of life
in an u~ntimely grave.
But this tide of evil temptation which, like
a torrent, rolls its waves in upon society, is not
irresistible. Although it exists in all large COM
munities, its course is not necessarily fraught
with misery and death for, but an exercise of
the power of moral courage is required to enable
a young man to resist its influence and withstand
like a rock the threatening surge. Moral cour-
age is the highest and most perfect order of
bravery, and that which. in a considerable de-
gree, comprehends every other kind. Unknown
in the brute creation, it is found developed in
man in proportion as he approaches the perfec-
ton of human nature. 1t is one of the noblest
qualities of the human mind-perhaps more
than any other quality-an attribute of true
greatness. 1t may be regarded as that transcen-
dental power of the intellect-that spiritual es-
sence, as it were-which promptsa man to seek
the paths of truth, and do justice, at any sacrifice
and at whatever cost. 1t is that secret monitor
of the heart which impresses upon the mind the
Importance of executing fearlessly that which is
to be done which urges it to cast aside selfish
considerations and do the thing which is right,
uninfuenced by the demands of pleasure or pecu-
MARY profit, and unbiased by the voice of ridi-
Guile or the persuasion of false rcasonings. Moral
courage is what leads a person to vindicate the
truth at all times and under all circumstances.
We have remarked that moral courage is the
uipntcI LII 1uOSt ptflccC OrQer OF courage, ana |
it in a very considerable degree comprehends
every other kind. A man who is we'll endowed
this quality, will never allow himself to be
overpowered by fear. When a moment of peril
comes, the strength of the mind rises triumph |
ant over physical terror, and the coward body is
sustained by the superior force of the soul. New
levied soldiers often tremble when the roar of ar
tillery is heard and the glitter of the opposing
bayonet is seen for the first time upon the field of
battle, and if they obeyed the dictates of their
natural impulses, might turn their backs and fly.
But if their cowardice is held in check by moral
courage, inspired by the bravery of their older
or general, they are enabled to pass
VIGOROUSLY through the trying ordeal.
"The brave man is not he who feels no fear,
For that were stupid and irrational
But he whose noble soul that fear subdues
And bravely dares the danger Nature shrinks FROM
The man in whom moral courage islargely de-
veloped will shrink from no perils to his person
while engaged in the performance of duty. He
will be ierrifed by neither menaces, imprisonment
nor blows. Persuasion and brides will not lure
him from the path of rectitude, and persecution
cannot compel him to do an act of which his
conscience does not approve. Moral courage is
not an attribute of the duellist.
The number of those who pursue the line of
conduct that Lord Erskine did, doing what con-
science tells to beduty, regardless of consequences,
is comparatively small-not in Honolulu only,
but throughout the wide world. There are few,
very few, who do only what their consciences
fully approve-few whose practice comes up to
their ideas of right. Pleasures are e~nticing, and
passions attract us from the true path. Ambi-
ton, revenge, affection, love of wealth and fear,
often divert apparently good and wise men from
the course which conscience tells them ought to
be pursued. We are too apt to consider our
personal enjoyment, our worldly prosperity and
our standing in society and before the public,
paramount to truth and justice.
A man by the complete surrender of his moral
courage may become lowered to the level of the
brute creation. 1t is in proportion as this quail
ity is developed that he rises in the estimation of
his fellows, and on the contrary as it is lost, does
he lower. 1t is not necessary that he be a public
man to be observed. Every person occupies some
in life, and whatever that may be, the
presence or absence of moral courage has its eff
fects in developing the character, whether in the
work shop, in the field, in the store, or in the
counting house.-in all these stations its exercise
lie character and is q guarantee of sue
Wien unexercised, it leads too freely TO
tie sociil botrd, to the gaming table. to the
of the strange woman, 70 an utter los of