hing he wants a shorter prong; in making buildings he does not so
soon want a ladder or a scaffold; in fighting he keeps his body farther
from the point of his sword. To be sure, a man _may_ be tall and _weak_;
but, this is the exception and not the rule: _height_ and _weight_ and
_strength_, in men as in speechless animals, generally go together. Aye,
and in enterprise and courage too, the powers of the body have a great
deal to do. Doubtless there are, have been, and always will be, great
numbers of small and enterprizing and brave men; but it is _not in
nature_, that, _generally speaking_, those who are conscious of their
inferiority in point of bodily strength, should possess the boldness of
those who have a contrary description.

277. To what but this difference in the _size_ and _strength_ of the
opposing combatants are we to ascribe the ever-to-be-blushed-at events
of our last war against the United States! The _hearts_ of our seamen
and soldiers were as good as those of the Yankees: on both sides they
had sprung from the same stock: on both sides equally well supplied with
all the materials of war: if on either side, the superior skill was on
ours: French, Dutch, Spaniards, all had confessed our superior prowess:
yet, when, with our whole undivided strength, and to that strength
adding the flush and pride of victory and conquest, crowned even in the
capital of France; when, with all these tremendous advantages, and with
all the nations of the earth looking on, we came foot to foot and
yard-arm to yard-arm with the Americans, the result was such as an
English pen refuses to describe. What, then, was the _great cause_ of
this result, which filled us with shame and the world with astonishment?
Not the want of _courage_ in our men. There were, indeed, _some moral
causes at work_; but the main cause was, the great superiority of size
and of bodily strength on the part of the enemy's soldiers and sailors.
It was _so many men_ on each side; but it was men of a different size
and strength; and, on the side of the foe, men accustomed to daring
enterprise from a consciousness of that strength.

278. Why are abstinence and fasting enjoined by the Catholic Church?
Why, to make men _humble_, _meek_, and _tame_; and they have this effect
too: this is visible in whole nations as well as in individuals. So that
good food, and plenty of it, is not more necessary to the forming of a
stout and able body than to the forming of an a