ers, you remember yet
These you have lost, but you can never know
One stands at their bleak graves whose eyes are wet
With thinking of your woe!

GRIT.

There is an influential form of practical force, compounded of strong
will, strong sense, and strong egotism, which long waited for a strong
monosyllable to announce its nature. Facts of character, indeed, are
never at rest until they have become terms of language; and that
peculiar thing which is not exactly courage or heroism, but which
unmistakably is "Grit," has coined its own word to blurt out its own
quality. If the word has not yet pushed its way into classic usage, or
effected a lodgement in the dictionaries, the force it names is no less
a reality of the popular consciousness, and the word itself no less a
part of popular speech. Men who possessed the thing were just the men to
snub elegance and stun propriety by giving it an inelegant, though
vitally appropriate name. There is defiance in its very sound. The word
is used by vast numbers of people to express their highest ideal of
manliness, which is "real grit." It is impossible for anybody to acquire
the reputation it confers by the most dexterous mimicry of its outside
expressions; for a swift analysis, which drives directly to the heart of
the man, instantly detects the impostor behind the braggart, and curtly
declares him to lack "the true grit." The word is so close to the thing
it names, has so much pith and point, is so tart on the tongue, and so
stings the ear with its meaning, that foreigners ignorant of the
language might at once feel its significance by its griding utterance as
it is shot impatiently through the resisting teeth.

Grit is in the grain of character. It may generally be described as
heroism materialized,--spirit and will thrust into heart, brain, and
backbone, so as to form part of the physical substance of the man. The
feeling with which it rushes into consciousness is akin to physical
sensation; and the whole body--every nerve, muscle, and drop of
blood--is thrilled with purpose and passion. "Spunk" does not express
it; for "spunk," besides being _petite_ in itself, is courage in
effervescence rather than courage in essence. A person usually cowardly
may be kicked or bullied into the exhibition of spunk; but the man of
grit carries in his presence a power which spares him the necessity of
resenting insult; for insult sneaks away from