Short Studies in Ethics: An Elementary Text-Book for SchoolsMiller, John Ormsby
Philosophy
Short Studies in Ethics: An Elementary Text-Book for Schools
Miller, John Ormsby
Ethics
Fighting, as a test of Courage, is greatly overestimated. Experienced
soldiers tell us that it requires a good deal of Courage to go into
battle for the first time. "You look pale," said one officer to another,
as he came within range of the enemy's guns for the first time; "are you
afraid?" "Yes," answered the other; "if you were half as much afraid,
you would turn tail." But, with most soldiers, the feeling of fear soon
wears off, and where there is no fear there is not much trial of
Courage. The physical Courage that we all covet is that which leads a
man to do what others dare not. In 1892, a young clergyman, on a visit
to this country, was crossing the foot-bridge at Niagara Falls. When
about one-third of the way across, he saw a lady stepping up from the
carriage path to the sidewalk. She caught her toe against the edge,
stumbled forward, and fell through the open iron work at the side of the
bridge. She happened to be over the place where the broken rocks line
the edge of the water. In her swift descent, she struck her head against
one of the girders and was stunned; her body then turned over and fell
across another girder. At this moment the clergyman came up. Looking
over, he saw her body swaying gently, and evidently about to drop very
soon to the awful rocks, over two hundred feet below. Without a moment's
hesitation, he sprang out over the edge of the bridge, and, seizing one
of the iron rods that supported the girder, he slid down, and then crept
along the narrow girder till he reached the lady. Bracing himself with
immense difficulty, he kept her from plunging into the abyss until help
arrived, death beckoning to him from below, if he should lose his head
for a single moment. At length a rope was lowered to him, and they were
soon drawn up. That is a splendid example of physical Courage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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