VALOUR. 1 1 1 



had lots of pluck, but as he was bold enough to admit, 

 a deficiency of nerve. 



Now the field of Diana happily requires but a slight 

 per-centage of daring and resolution compared with the 

 field of Mars. I heard the late Sir Francis Head, 

 distinguished as a soldier, a statesman, an author, and a 

 sportsman, put the matter in a few words, very tersely 

 and exceedingly to the point. " Under fire," said he, 

 " there is a guinea's-worth of danger, but it comes to 

 you. In the hunting-field, there is only three-ha'p 

 'orth, but you go to it I" In both cases, the courage 

 required is a mere question of degree, and as in war, so 

 in the chase, he is most likely to distinguish himself 

 whose daring, not to be dismayed, is tempered with 

 coolness, whose heart is always stout and hopeful, while 

 he never loses his head. 



Now as I understand the terms pluck and nerve, I 

 conceive the first to be a moral quality, the result of 

 education, sentiment, self-respect, and certain high 

 aspirations of the intellect ; the second, a gift of nature 

 dependent on the health, the circulation, and the liver 

 As memory to imagination in the student, so is nerve to 

 pluck in the horseman. Not the more brilliant quality, 

 nor the more captivating, but sound, lasting, available 

 for all emergencies, and sure to conquer in the long run. 



