a virtue or quality of the mind, generally considered as the same with COURAGE; though in a more accurate sense they seem to be distinguishable. Courage may be a virtue or a vice, according to circumstances; fortitude is always a virtue: we speak of desperate courage, but not of desperate fortitude. Fortitude, A contempt or neglect of danger, without regard to consequences, may be called courage; and this some brutes have as well as we; in them it is the effect of natural instinct chiefly; in man it depends partly on habit, partly on strength of nerves, and partly on want of consideration. But fortitude is the virtue of a rational and considerate mind, and is founded in a sense of honour and a regard to duty. There may be courage in fighting a duel, though that folly is more frequently the effect of cowardice; there may be courage in an act of piracy or robbery; but there can be no fortitude in perpetrating a crime. Fortitude implies a love of equity and of public good; for, as Plato and Cicero observe, courage exerted for a selfish purpose, or without a regard to justice, ought to be called audacity rather than fortitude. Fortitude. This virtue takes different names, according as it acts in opposition to different sorts of evil; but some of those names are applied with considerable latitude. With respect to danger in general, fortitude may be termed intrepidity; with respect to the dangers of war, valor; with respect to pain of body or distress of mind, patience; with respect to labour, activity; with respect to injury, forbearance; with respect to our condition in general, magnanimity.

Fortitude is very becoming in both sexes; but courage is not so suitable to the female character: for in women, on ordinary occasions of danger, a certain degree of timidity is not unseemly, because it betokens gentleness of disposition. Yet from those of very high rank, from a queen or an empress, courage in emergencies of great public danger would be expected, and the want of it blamed; we should overlook the sex, and consider the duties of the station. In general, however, masculine boldness in a woman is disagreeable; the term virago conveys an offensive idea. The female warriors of antiquity, whether real or fabulous, Camilla, Thalestris, and the whole community of Amazons, were unamiable personages. But female courage exerted in defence of a child, a husband, or a near relation, would be true fortitude, and deserve the highest encomiums.

The motives to fortitude are many and powerful. This virtue tends greatly to the happiness of the individual, by giving composure and presence of mind, and keeping the other passions in due subordination. To public good it is essential; for without it, the independence and liberty of nations would be impossible. It gives to a character that elevation which poets, orators, and historians, have in all ages vied with one another to celebrate. Nothing so effectually inspires it as rational piety; the fear of God is the best security against every other fear. A true estimate of human life; its shortness and uncertainty; the numberless evils and temptations to which by a long continuance in this world we must unavoidably be exposed; ought by no means to discourage or to throw any gloom on our future prospects: they should teach us, that many things are more formidable than death; and that nothing is lost, but much gained, when, by the appointment of Providence, a well-spent life is brought to a conclusion.

Let it be considered too, that pusillanimity and fearfulness can never avail us anything. On the contrary, they debauch our nature, poison all our comforts, and make us despised in the eyes of others; they darken our reason, disconcert our schemes, extinguish our efforts, extinguish our hopes, and add tenfold poignancy to all the evils of life. In battle, the brave soldier is in less danger than the coward; in less danger even of death and wounds, because better prepared to defend himself; in far less danger of infelicity; and has before him the animating hope of victory and honour. So in life, the man of true fortitude is in less danger of disappointment than others are, because his understanding is clear, and his mind disencumbered; he is prepared to meet calamity without the fear of flinching under it; and he has before him the near prospect of another life, in which they who piously bear the evils of this will obtain a glorious reward.