The National Republican And Ohio Political Register

Courage is incompatible with the fear of death; but every villain fears death; therefore no villain can be brave. He may, indeed, possess the courage of a rat and fight with desperation, when driven into a corner. If by craft and crime, a successful adventurer should be enabled to usurp a kingdom and to command its legions there may be moments, when like Richard on the field of Bosworth, or Napoleon on the plains of Marengo, all must be staked; an awful crisis, when if his throne be overturned, his scaffold must rise upon its ruins. Then, indeed, though the cloud of battle should lower on his hopes, while its iron hail is rattling around him, the greatest coward will hardly fly to insure that death which he can only escape by facing. Yet the glare of a courage thus elicited by danger, where fear conquers fear, is not to be compared to that calm sunshine which constantly cheers and illuminates the breast of him who builds his confidence on virtuous principles; it is rather a transient and evanescent lightning of the storm, and which derives half its lustre from the darkness that surrounds it.—Lacon.