A decent boldness ever meets with friends, -POPE. The coward only threatens when he is secure. -GOETHE. Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning; but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's sure of losing.* The man who fears nothing is not less powerful than he who is feared by every one. -SCHILLER. He either fears his fate too much, That dares not put it to the touch, -MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. This is well to be weighed; that boldness is ever blind; for it seeth not dangers and inconveniences. Therefore it is ill in counsell, good in execution so that the right use of bold persons is that they never command in chief, but be seconds, and under the direction of others. For in counsell, it is good to see dangers; and in execution, not to see them, except they be very great. -BACON. *From Sayings from the Works of George Eliot, selected Alexander Main. A famous city had three gates, and on the first the inscription was, "Be bold"; and on the second gate yet again, "Be bold, and evermore be bold"; the third it was written, "Be not too bold." and on "Come and take them ", was the reply of Leonidas, King of Sparta, to the messengers sent by Xerxes to Thermopylo. Xerxes said, "Go and tell those madmen to deliver up their arms." Leonidas replied, "Go and tell Xerxes to come and take them."* Wellington was once in great danger of being drowned at sea. It was bedtime, when the captain of the vessel came to him and said. "It will soon be all over with us." "Very well, answered the Duke, "then I shall not take off my boots." Keep up your courage, friend, Nor falter on the track Look up, toil bravely on, And scorn to languish back. A true heart rarely fails to win, A will can make a way— The darkest night will yield at last * From Rev. Dr. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable } 32. CRIME. The leading fact which arrests our attention is that every crime proceeds from an abuse of some faculty or other; and the question immediately arises, whence originates the tendency to abuse? The answer-from three sources. FIRST: From particular faculties being too active; what is the cause of particular faculties being too active in individuals? In answer, I point to the law of hereditary descent, by which the faculties most energetic in the parents determine those which shall predominate in the child. SECONDLY: From great excitement produced by external causes; undue excitement may arise from the individual being pressed by want of food, stimulated by intoxicated liquors, seduced by evil example, and from a variety of other unfavourable influences. THIRDLY: From ignorance of what are uses and what are abuses of the faculties. Abuses may arise from sheer want of knowledge concerning the constitution of the mind, and its relations to external objects. The first cause-the great preponderance of the animal propensities-cannot, by any means yet known, be summarily removed. Intellect, therefore, points out an alternative-that of supplying, by moral and physical restraint, the control which, in a brain better constituted, is accorded by the moral and intellectual faculties; in short, of placing the offender under such a degree of effective control as absolutely to prevent the abuse of his faculties. The second cause-great excitement from withoutmay be removed by withdrawing the individual from the influence of the unfavourable external circumstances to which he is exposed. The very restraint and control which serve to effect the first object will directly tend to accomplish the second at the same time. The third cause—namely, ignorance-may be removed by conveying instruction to the intellectual, and training to the moral, and religious powers. -GEORGE COMBE. Stand in dread of guilt, and deem the smallest offence great for a slight ailment becometh a dreadful disease. -"DESATIR." Make atonement for the offence which you may have committed. "DESATIR."* Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; Labour is one of the best antidotes to crime. -SMILES. Every man is to be presumed innocent till he is proved to be guilty. -BLACKSTONE. Translated by Mulla Firuz Bin Kaus, edited by D. J. Medhora. 33. DANGER. There is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the beginnings and onsets of things. Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers have deceived men, than forced them. Nay, it were better, to meet some dangers half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep. On the other side to be deceived with too long shadows, and to shoot off before the time, or to teach dangers to come on by over early buckling towards them, is another extreme. The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion must ever be well weighed, and generally first to watch and then to speed. -BACON. Better to be despised for too anxious apprehension than ruined by too confident security. The way to be safe is never to feel secure. -BURKE. Apprehended dangers are defended dangers. A danger foreseen is half avoided. The hard-won is the dearly-prized; the easy fool who flies At danger's first approach, will die as ignorant as he was born; But he who faces it and braves it, though it over come him, Will learn to conquer even by being conquered. -CHARLES H. HANGER. |
