nd highly strung nervous system; and yet men of the latter class
sometimes surpass men of the former class when the danger actually
arrives--they seem to have prepared themselves for it, when men
of the former class seem in a measure to be taken by surprise.

It is the attainment of physical courage, or courage to defy a
threat of physical injury, that military training aims at. That it
has done so successfully in the past, the history of the valiant
deeds of sailors and soldiers bears superabundant witness. This
courage has been brought out because it was essential. Courage is
to a man what strength is to structural materials. No matter how
physically strong and mentally equipped a man may be; no matter
how perfectly designed and constructed an engine may be, neither
the man nor the engine will "stand up to the work," unless the
courage in the one case, and the strength of the materials in the
other case, are adequate to the stress.

While perfect courage would enable a man to approach certain death
with equanimity, all that is usually demanded of a man is that he
shall dare to risk death, if need be. To do this successfully, a
great assistance is a knowledge that even if things look bad, the
danger is not so great as it appears. Therefore, training confronts
men frequently with situations that look dangerous, but which skill
and coolness can avert. In this way, the pupil becomes familiar
with the face of danger, and learns that it is not so terrible as
it seems. Nothing else makes a man so brave regarding a certain
danger as to have met that danger successfully before. This statement
must be qualified with the remark that in some cases a danger,
although passed successfully, has been known to do a harm to the
nervous system from which it never has recovered. This is especially
the case if it was accompanied with a great and sudden noise and
the evidence of great injury to others. In cases like this, the
shock probably comes too abruptly to enable the man to prepare
himself to receive it. The efficacy of a little preparation, even
preparation lasting but a few seconds, is worthy of remark. Two
theories connecting fear and trembling may be noted here: one that a
person trembles because he fears; the other, and later, that trembling
is automatic, and that a person fears _because he trembles_.

But the influence of fear is not only to tempt a man to turn his
back on duty and seek safety in flight, for it affects him in