PHASES OF COURAGE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 132, 22 September 1876, Page 2

PHASES OF COURAGE.

The Chinese of the Southern deltas, who have little active, courage, though the Chinese of; tlie^orth: and; West have plenty, will die for a save a richer criminal from the sentence he has earned. The Bengalee, who, alone among mankind, calmly, u Arme b i:eero," I am timid," as if cowardice was a matter of moral and social indifference, or rather creditable than otherwise, goes to execution, as Macaulay noticed, like a hero, and will he encounter an inevitable and agonising death without a flutter of the pulse. His .-nerve is a»: great as Wainwrigh't's-, who (lied without a perceptible change in ;the /stj3a.diness of. his^heartbeats! ■ but thev-Bsngalee—-with an object fikfore Into,vwould probably have rushed ujfbi who cannpt" bs,-. 'induced oi ;> to face vdiesras iranquiUy'as biancsi : ;.and. the : - di ? foei cddsi> who out a inunmu , -&*vS:^|ang.... sailor of the: 1 thing earthly except a black cat, has' probably twice, a liiuch feaa; of deatHC-as the cultivated woman, who can endure death by deadly operation resignedly, yet faint in the presence of any noisy danger. The wild romancer, .Gustave- Aimard, states as an act within his knowledge, that a Si-anish officer shot himself : dead rather than cross a rope suspension bridge, and we can vouch for the following story, though wd must not give the ; names An English ensign, just joined before the first Sikh campaign, went to his, commanding officer, a relative, and told "him that he could not face the-shot : that he should disgrace himself, and miist'resign. His relative comforted'him kindly, told him he was only nervous, and - thought he had soothed liis fears ; . but' the lad, as he stepped out of ■ the tent, shot himself through the brain/ inviting death rather than meet a call upon his courage.