VALOUR 



slight percentage of daring and resolution com- 

 pared 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 exceed- 

 ingly 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, 

 hut yotc £-0 to it!'' 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. 



" We will suppose two sportsmen are crossing a 

 country equally well mounted, and each full of 

 valour to the brim. A, to quote his admiring 



105 



