The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-03-30

WHAT COURAGE WILL Do IL CASE OF
Az EMERGENCY.

AZ EMERGENCY.
Courage undoubtedly implies al
acrity, and even pleasure, in facing
peril from which many shrink; Il
spirit that rises &C. TIE encounter
with danger; bat whether or not
courage properly implies 4 rightand
sufficient justification for such an
encounter is another question. Ifis
does, then we should say that vo-
men are often more courageous than
men, since the existence Of q sufii-
cient motive for cncountering peril
makes a vast deal more difference,
on tho whole, to their nerve than it
makes 10 The aerve Of men. There
is hardly mother who will not en-
counter pain and shame and peril
with q iirner heart to save her child
than ever q brave man would show
for the same end. But then COM
pare the two in moments Of peril
when there is no such noble motive
70 string the nerve of either, and the
chances are that man would be the
braver of the twO-not perhaps, that
his heart is the bolder, but that his
mind passes much less easily into
the collapse which fear brings, and
is less dependent on an exalted
emotion, for the resistance it op-
poses to anything ike moral paral-
ysis. II Miss .Cobbe is right, and
courage implies the existence Of
some motive Of absolute obligation
on behalf Of which peril Is to be
faced, then women, so far as they
really enter into such motives, are,
we believe, braYer than men, be
cause they live more singly and
heartily in the purer emotions to
which they surrender themselves.
If, on the contrary, courage is TO
cover all the cases Of self-possession
and coolness in peril; whether there
is or is not high and disintesested
motive for contTontin the peril. then
men are the more courageous, for
their temperament Is more comba-
tive there Is more in it which rises
to an emergency only because there
IS an emergency to rise to; more Of
immediate reaction against any
thing that has an aggressive look,
than there is In women. We should
say that the minds of women do not
rebel as instinctively against mere
collapses rs DO the minds Of men.
When there is any profound afec-
ton which steels them against such
a collapse, they are more wholly
impcryious to it than man. But
when there is no such antidete to
collapse, the collapse Of horror sets
in much more easily in their minds
than it does in the sturdier and less
mobile nature Of the male sex.
Men are less prone to be unnerYed
By their fear than women. Women
are more prone to be neryed by their
affection to great actions than men.
But it is not only by their aGec-
tions that women are made notably
courageous. Often they are made SO
by very inferior interests, especially
by the intense conservatism Of their
proprietary instincts. We believe
that women much oftener-oftenerat
least in proportion TO the need-risk
their lives in defense Of their prop
erty than men. Women who would
faint away in the face of shipwreck.
or even 1T the approach Of an angry
bull, viii constantly go alone about
a house at night when they believe
burglars to be attempting the house,
without any panic at all. This Is
no doubt, in part because they real
ize less clearly the brutality Of the
sort Of men who rob houses than
mon do, and are, in fact, rendered
fearless by their comparative ignoT-
ance Of the world. So, likewise.
men are often exceedingly fearless at
sea, or IN danger nom railway catas-
trophies, until their nerves have
once received q serious shock
from either cause, after which they
become as liable to collapse Of nerve
as a woman. Charles Dickens, who
behaved like hero in the terrible
railway accident, ae-
knowledsed that his nerve received
such q shock in it that he could not
drive in an ordinary hand
som-cab without spasms of extreme
terror. The comparative fearless
ness either Of unimaginatiYe natures
or of complete ignorance has hardly
the right TO the name of courage.
1t is only insensibility to a par icu-
lar class ofparalyzing fears.