The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-02-17
HUMAN NATURE.
From the Baltimore sun.

Great as Should be the respect paid
to true courage, some discrimination
should be made between kinds OF cour-
age according to the conditions under
which it is exhibited. And, though
true cowardice is contemplate, excuses
may be found for some forms of timidity.
The courageous man is usually a strong
man, well-equipped to face danger.
Strong, skillful. quick of eye and OF
hand, very often experienced. he may
with no personal danger face risks that
would appal the weak or infirm. The
timidity of women in the presence of
physical dangers results not from In
capacity to support pain or make sacri-
fees, but because as class they are
weak and unframed, and have been as
matter of social custom shielded from
such dangers. 1t is courageous act
for swimmer to risk his life in the
rescue of a person in danger of drown
ing, but we may not therefore con-
denim as coward the man who, being
unable to swim, refuses to make vain
sacrifice of his life. Here the in-
capacity to do courageous act is
obvious. in other cases where men are
condemned as towards by the unthinll-
ing. for courage requires not merely
will to do some act of heroism and pos
sibly sacrifice, but the power to do it.
There is, of course, ineXcusable cow
ardice, as where a man with the power
to help or save another selfshly re-
fuses to do so because of the remote
risk: but the mere refusal is not evil
dence of it; his condition and circum-
stances must be taken into considera-
tion before judgment is pronounced
against him. The highest type of cour-
age is that which assumes a real risk
from high motives, as. for instance, to
promote justice or to shield the weak
from injury. The courage OF the battle
field is usually of lower order and is
very often born of excitement. Even
that courage is to be admired, for it is
necessary to the development of
higher kind. No one can visit the bat
tlefeld of Gettysburg and listen to the
story of Pickett's charge without being
inspired by the heroism of the men who
in the face of shot and shell marched
across the uncovered plain up to the
very mouths of the death-dealing guns.
No mere animal courage could have
sustained such charge. Back of it
there was high purpose and an emo
bling faith. But the courage that is
most to be admired is that which has
its origin in a love of truth and Justice,
and which assumes disagreeab1e duties
or risks or suffers pain for an unset
fish purpose. This kind of courage is
very often exhibited by timid women
in greater degree than by brave men.
The courage that can act in a moment
and win it's laurels at one stroke is the
kind of courage in which men excel;
the patient courage, which, sustained
by faith, goes through years of suffering
without murmur, that is the courage
characteristic of good women. And it
is that courage which is too often sub
jected to a strain that its possessor
should not be expected to hear.
Without depreciating animal courage,
which is largely dependent upon and
very'often proportioned to the physical
powers, greater respect should be
given to moral courage, the kind that
young man requires if he would
withstand the jeers of bad compa Mons
at his refusal to sacrifice his honor
Courage of that kind is based upon
strong principles; its exhibition
brings pain as great as may arise
from physical wounds. and the young
man who possesses it is more to be
honored than the hero of battlefield.
But what then, is to be said of the
moral coward, who shrinks from ridi-
cule and does conscious wrong to es-
cape being laughed at? Even he is to
be judged according to his training and
strength He should be pitied rather
than condemned if he fails through
constitutional weakness for false
training. Between a brave man and
coward great gulf seems to be set,
but examining both more closely it
will generally be found that the differ
ences in their behavior result logically
from differences in their nature or
training, or both. The courageous
man is brave because he is powerful
and is conscious of his power; the timid
man is cowardly because he knows he
is weak.