--Sir Walter Raleigh, on "The Snuff of a Candle."

All military courage of any value is the offspring of pride and will.
The existence of what is called "natural courage" may well be doubted.
What is frequently mistaken for it is either perfect self-command, or a
stolid indifference, arising from dull-brained inability to comprehend
what really is danger.

The first instincts of man teach him to shun all sources of harm, and
if his senses are sufficiently acute to perceive danger, his natural
disposition is to avoid encountering it. This disposition can only be
overcome by the exercise of the power of pride and will--pride to aspire
to the accomplishment of certain things, even though risk attend, and
will to carry out those aspirations.

Harry Glen was apparently not deficient in either pride or will. The
close observer, however, seemed to see as his mastering sentiment
a certain starile selfishness, not uncommon among the youths of his
training and position in the slow-living, hum-drum country towns
of Ohio. The only son of a weakly-fondling mother and a father too
earnestly treading the narrow path of early diligences and small savings
by which a man becomes the richest in his village, to pay any attention
to him, Harry grew up a self-indulgent, self-sufficient boy. His course
at the seminary and college naturally developed this into a snobbish
assumption that he was of finer clay than the commonality, and in some
way selected by fortune for her finer displays and luxurious purposes.
I have termed this a "sterile selfishness," to distinguish it from that
grand egoism which in large minds is fruitful of high accomplishments
and great deeds, and to denote a force which, in the sons of the average
"rich" men of the county seats, is apt to expend itself in satisfaction
at having finer clothes and faster horses and pleasanter homes, than the
average--in a pride of white hands and a scorn of drudgery.

When Harry signed his name upon the recruiting roll--largely impelled
thereto by the delicately-flattering suggestion that he should lead off
for the youth of Sardis--he had not the slightest misgiving that by
so doing he would subject himself to any of the ills and discomforts
incidental to carrying out the enterprise upon which they were
embarking. He, like every one else, had no very clear idea of what the
company would be called upon to do or undergo; but no doubt obtruded
itself into his mind that whateve