Show two kinds of courage general horace porter contributes an article to the june century on the philosophy of courage from which we quote as follows indifference to danger is not always the form of courage which should entitle its professor to the highest credit it is a negative virtue as compared with the quality which enables one to perform a dangerous duty while realizing the full measure of the peril encountered those two thaita are best illustrated by the old story of the two soldiers choso whoso regiment was charging up a hill in a desperate attempt to capture a battery when halfway half way up one of thorn turned to the other and said why youre as pale as a sheet you look like a ghost I 1 believe youre afraid yes I 1 am was the answer and it you were half as much afraid as I 1 am have run long ago it is something higher than physical courage it is a species of moral courage which recognizes izes the danger and yet over masters the sense of fear when the famous mine in front of petersburg had been completed and the national troops drawn up ready to charge the en worlds as soon as the mine had done its work in creating a breach the signal was given just before daylight the fuse was lighted and the command stood waiting with intense anxiety for the explosion which was to bollow but seconds then minute then tens of minutes passed aad still no sound from the mine the suspense became painful and the gloom of disappointment overspread the anxious faces of oui cers and men the fuse had been split about midway it was now thought that there was a defect in the splice and that it was at that point that the fuse was hanging fire the day was breaking the enemy was bo coming alert at sight of our unmasked columns there was not a moment to bo lost lieutenant doughty and sergeant rees of the pennsylvania infantry now volunteered to examine the fuse they entered the long dark gallery which led to the mine and without stopping to calca aate the chances of life calmly ox themselves to one of the most i horrible forms of death with no excitement cit ement to lend them its intoxication with nothing to divert their minds irom the fate which seemed to await them they followed the course of the fuse through the long subterranean passage found the defect at which j the spark had been arrested and made a new splice on their return the match was again applied and the train was now prompt to do its deadly work these men displayed even a higher order of courage than those who afterwards charged into the breach |