sceptically
inclined a man may be, there comes a point where he suspends his
will-to-disbelieve in favour of the proposition that Truth (and perhaps
Beauty and Goodness also) is better than the opposite, though it is
quite easy for anyone so minded, and with a little skill in dialectics,
to find a point of view from which even this can be doubted. Unless
the sceptic believed that Truth is better than its opposite why should
he take the trouble to convict his opponent of error or to satisfy
himself of the soundness of his own opinions? Clearly he has made his
choice at that point--a truly heroic choice if we consider
it--committing himself to a position which needs courage to maintain,
and thereby proving that he is no coward. In his own way he has faced
and bravely answered the question which, in one form or another, has to
be faced and answered by everyone. He has chosen to be a hero.

Over every _aspect_ of human life there hangs the _prospect_ of a
possible better, inviting us to achieve it, but without proof that we
shall succeed, or even that it is worth our while to make the attempt.
The coward within us asks for the proof; cries out that the venture is
not _safe_, and summoning the will-to-disbelieve has no difficulty in
finding reasons for rejecting the invitation. The hero, on the
contrary, finds in the terms offered the exact conditions to which his
nature is fitted to respond. He would rather _create_ the proof by his
own valour than have it for nothing from the outset. He is not
dismayed at finding himself in a universe which puts him under no
_compulsion_ to believe in God, Freedom, Duty and Immortality. As a
free soul he prefers not to be _compelled_ to believe in anything--for
how then could he be free? The offer of a logic that cannot be
gainsaid does not attract him, for he knows very well that his
will-to-disbelieve can gainsay any logic that may be produced--he can
meet it all, if so minded, with the Everlasting No. He finds his own
nature as hero exquisitely adapted to the nature of the universe as
dangerous--on that side the ringing challenge, on this the joyous
response; man and the universe engaged together as loyal confederates
in the task of creating a better-than-what-is.

Such are the respective arguments of the coward and the hero. Let it
be remembered that these are not the names of two different men. They
are names for the same man, as one or other element of his nature comes