The spiritual aspect of valor is evidenced by composure--calm presence
of mind. Tranquillity is courage in repose. It is a statical
manifestation of valor, as daring deeds are a dynamical. A truly brave
man is ever serene; he is never taken by surprise; nothing ruffles the
equanimity of his spirit. In the heat of battle he remains cool; in the
midst of catastrophes he keeps level his mind. Earthquakes do not shake
him, he laughs at storms. We admire him as truly great, who, in the
menacing presence of danger or death, retains his self-possession; who,
for instance, can compose a poem under impending peril or hum a strain
in the face of death. Such indulgence betraying no tremor in the writing
or in the voice, is taken as an infallible index of a large nature--of
what we call a capacious mind (_yoyū_), which, for from being pressed or
crowded, has always room for something more.

It passes current among us as a piece of authentic history, that as Ōta
Dokan, the great builder of the castle of Tokyo, was pierced through
with a spear, his assassin, knowing the poetical predilection of his
victim, accompanied his thrust with this couplet--

"Ah! how in moments like these
Our heart doth grudge the light of life;"

whereupon the expiring hero, not one whit daunted by the mortal wound in
his side, added the lines--

"Had not in hours of peace,
It learned to lightly look on life."

There is even a sportive element in a courageous nature. Things which