216 INDOOR STUDIES 



ings of anger, hatred, etc., wliioli brutalize men in 

 personal conflicts, are not appealed to. It is a 

 school of discipline in all the more manly and 

 heroic virtues. It begets courage, coolness, self- 

 control. It is a great game between great forces, 

 in which the clearest and longest heads win. It 

 fosters patriotism and the feeling of nationality. 

 It is said of certain African tribes that those that 

 are the most warlike as nations are the least so as 

 individuals, and vice versa. Quarrelsome and vin- 

 dictive men do not make good soldiers. The most 

 peaceable and high-minded make the best. The 

 more brutal qualities that seek personal encounter 

 are not the qualities that inspire a great soldiery. 

 It is not an encounter between men wherein one 

 seeks in a passion of anger to overthrow the other 

 and aggrandize himself; it is a collision of the great 

 forces that rule men. Moral force does as much, 

 or more, than physical force. The great passion or 

 inspiration of heroism has play; men are called on 

 to face great odds; they are called upon to offer 

 their lives for others. Men who lead a charge and 

 do not flinch or turn back have achieved the noblest 

 victory over themselves, whether they break the 

 enemy or not. The element of destiny comes in. 

 Large bodies of men are subject to laws and condi- 

 tions that touch not the individual. Their wrath 

 is not as the wrath of a man; their blood-shedding 

 is not as the crime of a person. So many elements 

 enter into a great battle beside the personal element; 

 all the forces of nature take part. It often hap- 



