And now we come to a subtler insight. The value society instils into its young to make them seek out, meet, and conquer adversity must be balanced with a second value that will cause the energy put into seeking challenges to be focused so the individual can deal with those challenges efficiently. There is nothing to be gained by teaching young people blind aggression; it will only run amok in its own and sometimes other societies. Eager, but directionless, young people end up hurting themselves in car crashes, daredevil stunts, and street fights, while accomplishing little or nothing for their society in useful, material terms.

The courage-tempering value is usually called wisdom, but intelligence and judgment are also terms for this same value. Wisdom has the effect of directing humans to achieve objectives by behaviour patterns that employ their energy 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, that is, simultaneously brave and civilized.

  

                                             Merlin and Arthur, by Scott Gustafson

  

                     The Education of Achilles by the Centaur Chiron, by Jean-Baptiste 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.

  

                                   Characters 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 known as work. Diligence and conscientiousness are two of its other names, as most of us are wearily aware. But the dreary, tedious, clichéd feel of this values cluster should not discourage us. Clichés, like this one about the nobleness of work, become clichés because they express something that is nearly universally true. “I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” (Thomas Jefferson) “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” (Thomas Edison) 

Courage is good. Intelligence is good. We learn that if we want to achieve great things we have to work very hard. Added together, and spread over lifetimes, wisdom and courage produce the synthesis called work. Thomas Carlyle distilled the idea 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