Though strength and courage are very good ingredients towards
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 forward 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 might 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 the brute. Strength,
ill-governed, 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 policy and stratagem.
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