"Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner"
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Addison draws a blade between two kinds of bravery and then, with the cool precision of a moral diagnostician, explains why one of them fails exactly when it’s most needed. “Courage that grows from constitution” is the confidence you’re born with: temperament, nerve, maybe even physiology. It reads like praise until he lands the twist: this courage “often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it.” The subtext is almost clinical. Instinct is not character. What feels like a permanent trait is, under pressure, just weather in the bloodstream.
The second courage is less romantic and more durable: the kind “which arises from a sense of duty.” Addison’s key verb is “acts.” Not “feels,” not “seems,” not “boasts.” Duty doesn’t guarantee fearlessness; it guarantees motion. That’s the rhetorical power here: he relocates courage from emotion to behavior, from identity to obligation. In doing so he quietly rebukes a culture that admired swagger, lineage, and manly “spirit” as if valor were a hereditary ornament.
Context matters. Addison, a central voice of early 18th-century British moral journalism (The Spectator), wrote for an ascendant middle class learning how to perform virtue in public. He’s offering a Protestant-adjacent ethic: steadiness over theatrics, principle over adrenaline. The line “in a uniform manner” is the point’s austerity made audible. Real courage, he implies, is boring on purpose: reliable, repeatable, unglamorous. It shows up not as a spectacular moment, but as a consistent practice when the room stops applauding.
The second courage is less romantic and more durable: the kind “which arises from a sense of duty.” Addison’s key verb is “acts.” Not “feels,” not “seems,” not “boasts.” Duty doesn’t guarantee fearlessness; it guarantees motion. That’s the rhetorical power here: he relocates courage from emotion to behavior, from identity to obligation. In doing so he quietly rebukes a culture that admired swagger, lineage, and manly “spirit” as if valor were a hereditary ornament.
Context matters. Addison, a central voice of early 18th-century British moral journalism (The Spectator), wrote for an ascendant middle class learning how to perform virtue in public. He’s offering a Protestant-adjacent ethic: steadiness over theatrics, principle over adrenaline. The line “in a uniform manner” is the point’s austerity made audible. Real courage, he implies, is boring on purpose: reliable, repeatable, unglamorous. It shows up not as a spectacular moment, but as a consistent practice when the room stops applauding.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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