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of honor, owned that, unless with his
regiment and in uniform, he was the
biggest coward possible. "Monsieur,"
said French officer under Turenne,
to his colonel, "why do your legs trem-
BILE so?" "Because," replied the other,
0they know very we'll into what con-
founded dangers my heart will carry
them
ROchefOucauld has an excellent little
chapter so we may call it, for it is not
like his shorter maxims-upOn the diff
ferent sorts of valOr-hOw some had
valor which carried them into action,
some had that which did not crop up
till the middle of the battle, others that
which sustained them at the end of the
fight; some soldiers were good behind
walls or bitches, or any shelter, however
small: others only brave at charges and
open assaults; some feared swords, and
some bullets. Few, very few, were
brave in the night, or under sudden at
tacks. But that kind of valor was got
by discipline.
Rochefoucauld was not only an ad-
mirable gentleman, a duke of high
lineage, but fine soldier; and what he
says agrees with the opinion of the
little Corsican lieutenant, who GER
tainly could not be considered of "blue
blood" "Few people" said Napoleon
the Great, ';have got what have got
the two o'clock of the morning valor; 1
have that, and that is how l conquered
He hesitated on account of modesty,
but bespoke the truth. He, had
splendid valor when in health; when
sick, he was timid and blundered; but
at the Bridge of Lodi and elsewhere,
the two o'clock of the morning courage
that ready for any emergency and en-
during through the night-came out
strongly.
We may concede, then, that there is
a certain conventionality in the brav-
erv of soldiers, just as there is in the
politeness of shopkeepers. So there is
in their brutality. When held in hand
and under control, no one is more SUBJ
servient, mild, or meek, than a good
soldier. In times of peace, all the
world over, Johnny Raw plays with
the babies, carries home the washing,
, and courts the servant girls; but when
: infuriated, during a siege, or when al
lowed to have his will, the brutality OF
the man is something disgraceful to
humanity.
In the "Birkenhead," the record OF
the loss of which is as noble as that OF
the most desperate battle ever fought,
| the soldiers stood to their arms and
, went down slowly to their deaths, so
that the women and children might be
saved.
Conventionality does much. Even
l flibusters, and burglars, and such
staggering ruffians, are vilely coarse
= and brutal because it is the fashion
Q with them to be so. Lord Byron has de-
scribed silken, polished kind OF pirate:
/ "He was the mildest-mannered man that
n ever scuttled ship or cut throat and
). Shakespeare's Hamlet finds out that
I zone may smile, and smile, and be vii
o lain; at least, 1 am sure, it may be so in
Z Denmark"
n Let us own that, of the two, If the
g harsh ruffian is the less dangerous, the
n smooth one is the more pleasant. AT
II ter being conventionally villain, III
D. might, by force of reason, be persuad
r. ed that it was much easier to be good
n and that amongst the pleasant ways O.
70 the world is the one which it has OF es
re teeming honesty, and making, with al
20 it's shortcomings, the ways of goodness
honorable, and the paths of rectltud'
le peaceful Philadelphia Pa Saturda.
le Eve. Post.