36 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



on overcoming it. Had Richard the First not 

 been the giant he was, would he have been the hero 

 he was ? would he have courted danger as he did, 

 alone, and single-handed ? 



I have said, that many virtues depend on this 

 single quality of courage. Richard possessed the 

 ne plus ultra of courage, and he was high-minded 

 and generous to a fault. He sought to accomplish 

 all his ends openly, avowedly, and honourably, 

 because he felt himself able to do so. His brother 

 John was a coward : and how did he seek to accom- 

 plish his objects? Why, by every species of low 

 and cunning villany, not stopping even at murder. 

 Had John been physically constituted as Richard, 

 and Richard as John, John had been called " the 

 lion-hearted," and Richard " the craven coward." 



Again, it may be urged, that on the field of battle 

 men not physically strong have frequently per- 

 formed feats of gratuitous and uncalled-for daring. 

 But neither will this objection serve ; for at the time 

 of performing these deeds of valour their physical 

 constitution is actually altered. The brain, power- 

 fully excited by the scenes, the trumpet's clang, the 

 panoply of war, the martial music, the stir, the life, 

 the uproar all around, pours into the heart a resist- 

 less tide, as it were, of nervous energy ; and the 



