so true it is that the human brain is a more
terrible weapon than the lion's paw.

The most finished man of the world would be one who was never
irresolute and never in a hurry.

SECTION 53. _Courage_ comes next to prudence as a quality of mind very
essential to happiness. It is quite true that no one can endow himself
with either, since a man inherits prudence from his mother and courage
from his father; still, if he has these qualities, he can do much to
develop them by means of resolute exercise.

In this world, _where the game is played with loaded dice_, a man must
have a temper of iron, with armor proof to the blows of fate, and
weapons to make his way against men. Life is one long battle; we have
to fight at every step; and Voltaire very rightly says that if we
succeed, it is at the point of the sword, and that we die with the
weapon in our hand--on _ne reussit dans ce monde qua la pointe de
l'epee, et on meurt les armes a la main_. It is a cowardly soul that
shrinks or grows faint and despondent as soon as the storm begins to
gather, or even when the first cloud appears on the horizon. Our motto
should be _No Surrender_; and far from yielding to the ills of life,
let us take fresh courage from misfortune:--

_Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito_.[1]

[Footnote 1: Virgil, _Aeneid_, vi. 95.]

As long as the issue of any matter fraught with peril is still in
doubt, and there is yet some possibility left that all may come right,
no one should ever tremble or think of anything but resistance,--just
as a man should not despair of the weather if he can see a bit of blue
sky anywhere. Let our attitude be such that we should not quake even
if the world fell in ruins about us:--

_Si fractus illabatur orbis
Impavidum ferient ruinae_.[1]

[Footnote 1: Horace, Odes iii. 3.]

Our whole life itself--let alone its blessings--would not be worth
such a cowardly trembling and shrinking of the heart. Therefore, let
us face life courageously and show a firm front to every ill:--

_Quocirca vivite fortes Fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus_.

Still, it is possible for courage to be carried to an excess and to
degenerate into rashness. It may even be said that some amount of fear
is necessary, if we are to exist at all in the world, and cowardice
is only the exaggerated form of it. This truth has been very well
expressed by Bacon, in his account of _Terror Panicus_; and the
etymological account which he