to mistakes. It
must be granted that his caution has saved him from a number of very
serious mistakes that other nations have made. It must also be
acknowledged that he exercises a fair amount of moderation in the opposite
direction--this modern Englishman; he has learned caution of another kind,
which his ancestors taught him. "Power," says the "Havamal," "should be
used with moderation; for whoever finds himself among valiant men will
discover that no man is peerless." And this is a very important thing for
the strong man to know--that however strong, he can not be the strongest;
his match will be found when occasion demands it. Not only Scandinavian
but English rulers have often discovered this fact to their cost. Another
matter to be very anxious about is public opinion.

Chattels die; kinsmen pass away; one dies oneself; but I know
something that never dies--the name of the man, for good or bad.

Do not think that this means anything religious. It means only that the
reputation of a man goes to influence the good or ill fortune of his
descendants. It is something to be proud of, to be the son of a good man;
it helps to success in life. On the other hand, to have had a father of
ill reputation is a very serious obstacle to success of any kind in
countries where the influence of heredity is strongly recognized.

I have nearly exhausted the examples of this Northern wisdom which I
selected for you; but there are two subjects which remain to be
considered. One is the law of conduct in regard to misfortune; and the
other is the rule of conduct in regard to women. A man was expected to
keep up a brave heart under any circumstances. These old Northmen seldom
committed suicide; and I must tell you that all the talk about
Christianity having checked the practice of suicide to some extent, can
not be fairly accepted as truth. In modern England to-day the suicides
average nearly three thousand a year; but making allowance for
extraordinary circumstances, it is certainly true that the Northern races
consider suicide in an entirely different way from what the Latin races
do. There was very little suicide among the men of the North, because
every man considered it his duty to get killed, not to kill himself; and
to kill himself would have seemed cowardly, as implying fear of being
killed by others. In modern ethical training, quite apart from religious
considerations a man is taught that suicide is only excusable in cas