Pagina 149 di 734

Of the characters on the side of Excess, he who exceeds in utter

absence of fear has no appropriate name (I observed before that

many states have none), but he would be a madman or inaccessible

to pain if he feared nothing, neither earthquake, nor the

billows, as they tell of the Celts.

He again who exceeds in confidence in respect of things fearful

is rash. He is thought moreover to be a braggart, and to advance

unfounded claims to the character of Brave: the relation which

the Brave man really bears to objects of fear this man wishes to

appear to bear, and so imitates him in whatever points he can;

for this reason most of them exhibit a curious mixture of

rashness and cowardice; because, affecting rashness in these

circumstances, they do not withstand what is truly fearful.