THE NEED OF CAVALRY


In the interesting Buddhist book, "The Wheel of the Law," translated by
Henry Alabaster, there is an account of a certain priest who used to bless
a great king, saying, "May your majesty have the firmness of a crow, the
audacity of a woman, the endurance of a vulture, and the strength of an
ant." The priest then told anecdotes illustrating all of these qualities.
Who has not known occasions wherein some daring woman has been the Joan of
Arc of a perfectly hopeless cause, taken it up where men shrank, carried it
through where they had failed, and conquered by weapons which men would
never have thought of using, and would have lacked faith to employ even if
put into their hands? The wit, the resources, the audacity of women, have
been the key to history and the staple of novels, ever since that larger
novel called history began to be written.

How is it done? Who knows the secret of their success? All that any man can
say is that the heart takes a large share in the magic. Rogers asserts in
his "Table-Talk," that often, when doubting how to act in matters of
importance, he had received more useful advice from women than from men.
"Women have the understanding of the heart," he said, "which is better than
that of the head." Then this instinct, that begins from the heart, reaches
other hearts also, and through that controls the will. "Win hearts," said
Lord Burleigh to Queen Elizabeth, "and you have hands and purses;" and the
greatest of English sovereigns, in spite of ugliness and rouge, in spite of
coarseness and cruelty and bad passions, was adored by the nation that she
first made great.