Are you, then, so easily turned
from your design? Did you not call this a glorious expedition?
And wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way
was smooth and placid as a southern sea, but because it was full of dangers and terror, because at every new incident
your fortitude was to be called forth and your courage exhibited,
because danger and death surrounded it, and these
you were to brave and overcome. For this was it a glorious,
for this was it an honourable undertaking. You were hereafter
to be hailed as the benefactors of your species, your
names adored as belonging to brave men who encountered
death for honour and the benefit of mankind. And now, behold,
with the first imagination of danger, or, if you will, the
first mighty and terrific trial of your courage, you shrink
away and are content to be handed down as men who had
not strength enough to endure cold and peril; and so, poor
souls, they were chilly and returned to their warm firesides.
Why, that requires not this preparation; ye need not have
come thus far and dragged your captain to the shame of a
defeat merely to prove yourselves cowards. Oh! Be men, or
be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as
a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may
be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it
shall not. Do not return to your families with the stigma of
disgrace marked on your brows. Return as heroes who have
fought and conquered and who know not what it is to turn
their backs on the foe.’
- From Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.
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