_Captain Roland_, (with a slight blush.)--"I was led to the inquiry (though, perhaps, it may be frivolous to take so much thought of what, no doubt, costs Pisistratus so little) by the last chapters in my nephew's story. I see this poor boy, Leonard, alone with his fallen hopes, (though very irrational they were,) and his sense of shame. And I read his heart, I dare say, better than Pisistratus does, for I could feel like that boy if I had been in the same position; and, conjecturing what he and thousands like him must go through, I asked myself, 'What can save him and them?' I answered, as a soldier would answer, 'Courage!' Very well. But pray, Austin, what is courage?" _Mr. Caxton._ (prudently backing out of a reply.)--"_Papoe!_ Brother, since you have just complimented the ladies on that quality, you had better address your question to them." Blanche here leant both hands on my father's chair, and said, looking down at first bashfully, but afterwards warming with the subject, "Do you not think, sir, that little Helen has already suggested, if not what is courage, what at least is the real essence of all courage that endures and conquers, that ennobles, and hallows, and redeems? Is it not Patience, father?--and that is why we women have a courage of our own. Patience does not affect to be superior to fear, but at least it never admits despair." _Pisistratus._--"Kiss me, my Blanche, for you have come near to the truth which perplexed the soldier and puzzled the sage." _Mr. Caxton_, (tartly.)--"If you mean me by the sage, I was not puzzled at all. Heaven knows you do right to inculcate patience--it is a virtue very much required in your readers. Nevertheless," added my father, softening with the enjoyment of his joke--"nevertheless, Blanche and Helen are quite right. Patience is the courage of the conqueror; it is the virtue, _par excellence_, of Man against Destiny--of the One against the World, and of the Soul against Matter. Therefore this is the courage of the Gospel; and its importance, in a social view--its importance to races and institutions--cannot be too earnestly inculcated. What is it that distinguishes the Anglo-Saxon from all other branches of the human family, peoples deserts with his children, and consigns to them the heritage of rising worlds? What but his faculty to brave, to suffer, to endure--the patience that resists firmly, and innovates slowly? Compare him with the Frenchman. The Frenchman has plenty of valor--that there is no denying; but as for fortitude, he has not enough to cover the point of a pin. He is ready to rush out of the world if he is bit by a flea." _Captain Roland._--"There was a case in the papers the other day, Austin, of a Frenchman who actually did destroy himself because he was so teased by the little creatures you speak of. He left a paper on his table, saying that 'life was not worth having at the price of such torments.'"[19]