t is said of the Royalist Earl of Strafford that, as he walked to the
scaffold on Tower Hill, his step and manner were those of a general
marching at the head of an army to secure victory, rather than of a
condemned man to undergo sentence of death. So the Commonwealth's
man, Sir John Eliot, went alike bravely to his death on the same spot,
saying: "Ten thousand deaths rather than defile my conscience, the
chastity and purity of which I value beyond all this world." Eliot's
greatest tribulation was on account of his wife, whom he had to leave
behind. When he saw her looking down upon him from the Tower window, he
stood up in the cart, waved his hat, and cried: "To heaven, my love!--to
heaven!--and leave you in the storm!" As he went on his way, one in the
crowd called out, "That is the most glorious seat you ever sat on;" to
which he replied: "It is so, indeed!" and rejoiced exceedingly. [145]

Although success is the guerdon for which all men toil, they have
nevertheless often to labour on perseveringly, without any glimmer
of success in sight. They have to live, meanwhile, upon their
courage--sowing their seed, it may be, in the dark, in the hope that it
will yet take root and spring up in achieved result. The best of causes
have had to fight their way to triumph through a long succession of
failures, and many of the assailants have died in the breach before
the fortress has been won. The heroism they have displayed is to be
measured, not so much by their immediate success, as by the opposition
they have encountered, and the courage with which they have maintained
the struggle.

The patriot who fights an always-losing battle--the martyr who goes to
death amidst the triumphant shouts of his enemies--the discoverer, like
Columbus, whose heart remains undaunted through the bitter years of his
"long wandering woe"--are examples of the moral sublime which excite a
profounder interest in the hearts of men than even the most complete and
conspicuous success. By the side of such instances as these, how small
by comparison seem the greatest deeds of valour, inciting men to rush
upon death and die amidst the frenzied excitement of physical warfare!

But the greater part of the courage that is needed in the world is not
of a heroic kind. Courage may be displayed in everyday life as well
as in historic fields of action. There needs, for example, the common
courage to be honest--the courage to resist temptation--the courage
to s