COURAGE by John Brisben Walker

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 1, 1905

COURAGE.

By John Brisben Walker

[John Brisben Walker, in the Cosmopolitan.]

It is a remarkable fact that the sportsman who comes from the jungle, where he has encountered, without a tremor, the deadliest animal foes, has been known, upon his return home with the trophies of his prowess, not infrequently to show himself a man who does not dare to oppose the wrong fad of an hour or a popular political belief.

In France, during the Revolution, we had another curious phase of courage. There were men, and many of them, who did not dare to set themselves in opposition to the dictates of their class, tho they might have saved France by a timely exhibition of their beliefs, who later on marched from the prison to the guillotine with a light-heartedness and insouciance that showed physical courage of the highest type. So confusing are these contradictions, that we come almost to wonder what the word courage really means.

Perhaps its vagaries are best exhibited in that cartoon of Life, which shows a lion-tamer, who has returned at a late hour, and fears to encounter his spouse, going into the cage of the lion for his night's rest, and being discovered presently, the woman looking through the bars, and exclaiming, 'O! you coward!' And this cartoon is founded upon not rare idiosyncrasies of courage.

We then reach a point where we ask ourselves:

Am I a brave man, or am I a coward?

If brave, to what extent, in what direction?

For instance, does my courage extend to the point of telling the truth, when I lose advantage by such a course, or do I prove myself a liar through cowardice?

If I see a fellow man drowning, am I sufficiently brave to risk my own life in his rescue?

If I am in a society where an opinion that I hold to be based on truth is vigorously denounced, have I the courage to defend it?

Or do I slink? Slink is a good word, tho not a very nice one. It is not pleasant to imagine oneself as a slinker.

And if a fire were occurring in the adjoining house, would I be willing to incur the risks of suffocation in order to rescue a woman who might otherwise perish?—and if I did this, would I on the next day give a smiling assent to the suggestion of my employer that I should vote a ticket which I believed to be not for the best interests of the community?

If I have a long-founded belief, which has been disturbed by argument, am I of the mental caliber which bravely goes to meet a demolition of my views, preferring to encounter a shock to these conceptions? Or do I mentally slink, and carefully run away from disturbing thought?

In other words, am I a coward?

No man can be truly a gentleman, if a coward. He may have the exterior marks of a gentleman—the veneering—but at heart he lacks, if he lacks courage.

There can be no such thing as true manliness, or true womanliness, if there is lack of courage.

Courage is the first component of character.

Courage is an essential of successful business life.

Courage is an essential in the administration of a household—the government of servants. If a mistress is cowardly, her servants quickly discover her weakness, and trample upon it.

What Courage Does.

Courage makes the difference between the clergyman, noble, devoted, and useful, and the mere time-server—that most pitiful of professional men, who draws a salary for rendering services to his fellow men, and slinks through life avoiding his responsibilities.

Courage not only marks the great editor of a great newspaper, but its absence kills the investment of the stockholders in that newspaper, so subtle is the public mind with reference to the characteristic of courage, and so instantly does it discover whether a man, set over a great journal to guard the public interest, has the courage necessary, or whether he is slinking along trying to avoid every important issue.

Courage equally distinguishes the man in public life, and makes of him the personage; or, in its absence, allows him to dwindle into an unrespected obscurity.

Courage in a wife rouses her to meet the greatest emergencies of life. She becomes a heroine in the face of unexpected calamity, before the loss of fortune. It puts her upon a pedestal above the ills and losses of life, where her husband and children may worship; or, for the lack of it, allows her to dwindle into the slattern.

Courage distinguishes the young boy just entering upon his career, and marks him out for promotion. He has the courage to stay by duty until performed, to speak the truth, to sacrifice pleasure to his mental and business development.

Courage enables the man in any one of the great stresses which come in life to every human being, to put aside temptation.

It is courage that prompts a man to seek the welfare of his fellow men, rather than his own.

Courage—nerve, some young men call it! But that is a less discriminating word.

Yet I do not know of any course on courage that is given in the public schools. I do not know of any text-book on courage. I do not know of any book that has gathered together the great examples of moral courage which have been given to the world by its heroes.

Physical courage we lay stress upon.

Physical courage is told of in books.

But physical courage is so common in form as to be almost unworthy of notice. In some, it is a form of hysteria. In a thousand instances it has been known to be a lack of moral courage. The man touching elbows and going unflinchingly into battle, we speak of as exhibiting courage. Yet it may be merely that he fears to incur the criticism of his companions.

From the Iliad down, we have had much talk of this kind of courage. It is trifling. It is unimportant. It means very little. But moral courage—why have we no books which explain to the young the thousand ways in which moral courage may be cultivated, and how much it means in each man's or woman's success?

One additional thought in this connection:

Courage gives the man or the woman power to consider facts upon their merits. It is the coward who, in the face of a fact, is side-tracked because the popular, known feeling has been in a certain direction. The man of courage will consider a fact upon its merits. He will investigate. He will analyze, and so obtain the truth. And this power of obtaining the truth—truth obtained through a courageous mind—is most valuable in every pursuit of life.

The cowardly mind, standing before opinions heretofore in vogue, is frightened at any temerity of thought, is deterred from investigating; and going into the slough of the commonplace, loses the opportunity for that advance which, in modern life, means success.

It is not clearly understood how valuable is the adjunct of courage in the man or woman, nor that, if accompanied by good judgment, it is the most valuable of business assets.