| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: Virtue?'--or rather, to restrict the enquiry to that part of virtue which
is concerned with the use of weapons--'What is Courage?' Laches thinks
that he knows this: (1) 'He is courageous who remains at his post.' But
some nations fight flying, after the manner of Aeneas in Homer; or as the
heavy-armed Spartans also did at the battle of Plataea. (2) Socrates wants
a more general definition, not only of military courage, but of courage of
all sorts, tried both amid pleasures and pains. Laches replies that this
universal courage is endurance. But courage is a good thing, and mere
endurance may be hurtful and injurious. Therefore (3) the element of
intelligence must be added. But then again unintelligent endurance may
often be more courageous than the intelligent, the bad than the good. How
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: was fully prepared to meet his fate; but with regard to his
friend, he could not die in peace unless the business was
settled, and that, if the officer would suffer him to return to
Glasgow, a few hours there would be sufficient, and he would join
him before he reached Edinburgh, and march as a prisoner with the
party. The soldier added, 'You have known me since I was a
child; you know my country and kindred; and you may believe I
shall never bring you to any blame by a breach of the promise I
now make, to be with you in full time to be delivered up in the
Castle.' This was a startling proposal to the officer, who was a
judicious, humane man, and knew perfectly his risk and
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: Schwartz, and had felt the power of his obstinate hand during the
long strike of two years before, when, the Union having declared
war, Schwartz had closed the brewery for several months rather
than submit to its dictation. The news, therefore, that the Union
had called a meeting and appointed a committee to wait on Mr.
Schwartz, to protest against his giving work to a non-union woman
filled them with alarm. The women remembered the privations and
suffering of that winter, and the three dollars a week doled out
to them by the Central Branch, while their husbands, who had been
earning two and three dollars a day, were drinking at O'Leary's
bar, playing cards, or listening to the encouraging talk of the
|
