Chapter 13                       Part D 

          And now we come to a subtler insight. The value which society instills or programs into its young to make them seek out, meet, and conquer adversity must be balanced or tempered with a second value which will cause the energies put into the challenge-seeking exercises to be focused, so that those energies will deal with challenges efficiently. There is nothing to be gained by teaching young people blind aggression; it will only run amok in the society which instilled that value to begin with. Directionless young people end up hurting themselves in car crashes, daredevil stunts, and street fights, while accomplishing little to nothing for their society in useful, material terms. 

               

            The courage-tempering value is usually called “wisdom”, but “intelligence" and “judgement” are also terms for this same value. Wisdom has the effect of directing humans to achieve objectives by behavior patterns which employ their energies efficiently. It is seen clearly in the medieval code of chivalry and the samurai warriors' code of bushido, both of which contain instruction on how a man may be noble, i.e. simultaneously brave and civilized.

                        

                                                  Merlin teaching Arthur (by Scott Gustafson) 

                                     The Education of Achilles by the Centaur, Chiron (Regnault)  

       

            Not surprisingly, there are echoes of this balancing of courage and wisdom deeply embedded in mythology. The Greek heroes Jason, Achilles, Perseus, Theseus, and Aeneas all needed Chiron, the wise, kind, moderate teacher. Among the early Britons, Arthur needed Merlin. In modern myth, Luke Skywalker needed Yoda, Dorothy needed Glinda. Courage must be tempered with wisdom.

                                                                 Luke Skywalker and Yoda 

             

                                           Dorothy and Glinda (from the film "The Wizard of Oz"

                                                             

                                       

                                                                                 Thomas Carlyle 

            The most familiar moral value that is a hybrid of courage and wisdom is the one that is known as "work". “Diligence” and “conscientiousness” are two of its other names, as we are all wearily aware. But the dreary, tedious, shopworn cliché-feel of this values cluster should not discourage us. Clichés, like this one about the nobleness of work, get to be clichés because they express something that is true. Courage is good. Intelligence is good. Added together, and spread over lifetimes, they produce the synthesis called "work".  Thomas Carlyle distilled the idea very well:

        "For there is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in Work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in Idleness alone is there perpetual despair. Work, never so Mammonish, mean, is in communication with Nature; the real desire to get Work done will itself lead one more and more to truth, to Nature's appointments and regulations, which are truth." (3.)