FORTITUDE AND ENVY 



UT of endurance," says Ruskin, " comes 

 fortitude." 



In other words, fortitude is the in- 

 ward grace for which endurance stands 

 sponsor. 



Whether, therefore, we allow or do 

 not allow ourselves to draw an inference of fortitude from 

 the endurance of animals, it is clear that we have first 

 to observe and consider this endurance, this " virtue of 

 adversity " as Bacon calls it. 



Surely then at the very outset we must confess that it 

 is to be found in fullest measure throughout the whole 

 animal world. 



The very silence of that world proves it. Think of the 

 quiet of the wilderness, the peace of the woods and fields 

 where yet the beasts that perish are dying daily of the slow 

 starvation which Nature has decreed shall be the Death 

 Angel of these our fellow mortals ! Think of the half- 

 frozen birds who stir into song at the first gleam of wintry 

 sunshine — of the tireless toil of the bee, not for itself but 

 for others — of the dumb determination of the trapped stoat 

 gnawing a way to freedom through its own flesh ! Think 

 even of the fatigue, discomfort, and disease borne in silence 



