Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1892-06-03

RARELY COMBINED.
PHYSICAL AND MORAL COURAGE Sell
DOM FOUND IN ONE PERSON.


Meaning of Physical CourAge-1ts RE-
wards and Demands-Loftier Motive OF
Moral Courage and the Injury That It
often Brings Upon ITS Possessor.
II is a rare thing TO meet a person,
sither man or woman. who combines in
one both physical and moral courage.
Mental courage is frequent thing-to
dare TO have opinions, TO dare to follow
ont their consequences in ones mind
and its absence is always pitiable where
''the poor heart would fain deny, but
dare not" But moral courage is far
rarer quality, and is as much higher
than physical courage rs the soul Is
higher than the body. Physical courage
il indeed the commonest of the virtues
Most soldiers Nave it who go into battle;
most mothers have 1t as they approach
the great gates of maternity; the child
has it who goes to bed in the dark; the
boy who challenges the bigger boy to
fight; the girl who drives the cattle
home.
1t is true there is something that passes
for physical courage which is not that
at all, and which, if it is not exactly
moral courage either, is courage that
deserves q name of its own-a disregard
of ones lower self, pride of ones loft
tier self, that is far nobler than any mere
fearlessness, which a dog can share
and that is the experience of a deadly
terror before any act, but the doing
1t nevertheless, concealing the terror
and achieving the result There is the
heroism in that which takes one to the
stake.
Physical courage is apt TO demand mp
plause, but moral courage leaves every
consideration but truth in the back
ground, and is more likely to bring one
ostracism than admiration. With moral
courage one speaks ones mind, one goes
forward to ones conception of duty, one
treads ones chosen way without the
thought, and go without the fear, of con-
sequences, or even If with the fear, still
treads it just the same.
One does not pause to measure the
possible effect upon ones self. One does
and says what right and the moment re-
quire. One is not inundated by the
frown, the brutal word, the threat, the
blow, the probable loss of prestige, the
force of any contrary opinion, public or
private, the possible deprivation of office
or of position. One has what has long
been known as the courage Of ones con-
victions, and does what one thinks is
right or best or even only expedient,
without regard to fear or favor.
The moral courage that dares to con-
tradict the village bully dares no less to
tell q king that he is in the wrong;
dares to arrest the wretch who, whip in
hand, abuses his beast-being more
beast than the other; dares, too, to
shield the culprit from the strong arm,
10 interpose ones self between the VIC
tim and the oppressor, whether the vic
tim be child in school or whole peo-
pie; dares always to resist tyranny. 1t
has been physical courage of course
that has fought the great battles of the
world-battles, probably, that the world
could as well have done without had ar
bitration been known-but it is moral
courage that has instigated and carried
forward every reform, and done away
with every oppression that has already
vanished.
After all, moral courage does more
for its possessor than for any one else.
The brutes of the field have physical
courage, but the other belongs only
among the altitudes-lifts and expands
the soul that has it and that uses it, and
makes it, one dares to think, only lit
tie lower than the angels. They that
have it never know when they are beat
en-; in fact, they cannot be beaten. They
return to the attack with all the pristine
vigor of the first onset, with all the
force that first impelled them.
Women, with their feeble bodies and
insufficient means of protection or of as
sault, are notoriously deficient in ami
NAL courage, that valiant courage and
undaunted spirit more than in woman
commonly is SEEM" but they are just as
notoriously rich in the opposite direc-
ton, and possessed of great moral cour-
age-that is, the women of the nobler
sort. It is they that uphold the hands
of others, they that never falter in their
purpose, they that will die for their
love or their belief-not they alone, but
they in the greater number. And it is
they that, by handing this trait down to
their sons, will lift the race constantly
to greater heights of righteous viii and
strength. Bazaar.