progress in that? This is a much more dubious question. The
subjects of terror vary so much in different times that it is
difficult to estimate the different degrees of courage shown in
resisting them. Men fear public opinion now as they did in former
times the Star Chamber; and those awful goddesses, Appearances, are
to us what the Fates were to the Greeks. It is hardly possible to
measure the courage of a modern against that of an ancient; but I am
unwilling to believe but that enlightenment must strengthen courage.

The application of the tests of greatness, as in the above instance,
is a matter of detail and of nice appreciation, as to the results of
which men must be expected to differ largely: the tests themselves
remain invariable--openness of nature to admit the light of love and
reason, and courage to pursue it.

-----

Ellesmere. I agree to your theory, as far as openness of nature is
concerned; but I do not much like to put that half-brute thing,
courage, so high.

Milverton. Well, you cannot have greatness without it: you may
have well-intentioned people and far-seeing people; but if they have
no stoutness of heart, they will only be shifty or remonstrant,
nothing like great.

Ellesmere. You mean will, not courage. Without will, your open-
minded, open-hearted man may be like a great, rudderless vessel
driven about by all winds: not a small craft, but a most uncertain
one.