Though strength and courage are very good ingredients towards the making
us secure and formidable in the world, yet, unless there be a proper
portion of wisdom or policy to direct them, instead of being
serviceable, they often prove detrimental to their proprietors. A rash
froward man, who depends upon the excellence of his own parts and
accomplishments, is likewise apt to expose a weak side, which his
enemies might not otherwise have observed, and gives an advantage to
others by those very means which he fancied would have secured it to
himself. Counsel and conduct always did, and always will, govern the
world; and the strong, in spite of all their force, can never avoid
being tools to the crafty. Some men are as much superior to others in
wisdom and policy, as man, in general, is above a brute. Strength
ill-concerted, opposed to them, is like a quarter staff in the hands of
a huge, robust, but bungling fellow, who fights against a master of the
science. The latter, though without a weapon, would have skill and
address enough to disarm his adversary, and drub him with his own staff.
In a word, savage fierceness and brutal strength must not pretend to
stand in competition with finesse and stratagem.