LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 35 



fight a duel, is it because he loves danger for the 

 sake of the pleasurable excitement it affords ? No. 

 Is it because he is indifferent to danger ? No. 

 What is it, then, which urges him on ? It is the/eor 

 of disgrace ; it is the dread of being hooted from 

 that sphere of society in which he moves ; it is his 

 fear of the finger of scorn which impels him : this, 

 therefore, is not courage this is fear. If he 

 refuse to fight, he knows that he will be degraded 

 from his caste his views, whether of love or ambi- 

 tion, will be destroyed. If he fight, he has a chance 

 of escape; and if he escape, his character, as a man 

 of courage, is established. His, therefore, is a choice 

 of two evils; and he chooses to fight, as being the 

 less evil of the two. If he could avoid both evils, 

 most assuredly he would do so. But this is not 

 courage. The mere act of fighting does not con- 

 stitute bravery. It is the feeling, the inward feel- 

 ing which he carries with him to the field it is this 

 which constitutes true valour. The rankest coward 

 that ever lived will fight, when he knows that instant 

 death attends his refusal, or that there is more dan- 

 ger in running away than in going forward. True 

 courage loves danger for the sake of the excitement 

 it affords loves it for the same reason that men 

 love wine loves it, too, for the glory consequent 



