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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: Douglas of the ROYAL OAK, when the Dutch fired his vessel in
the Thames, sent his men ashore, but was burned along with her
himself rather than desert his post without orders. Just
then, perhaps the Merry Monarch was chasing a moth round the
supper-table with the ladies of his court. When Raleigh
sailed into Cadiz, and all the forts and ships opened fire on
him at once, he scorned to shoot a gun, and made answer with a
flourish of insulting trumpets. I like this bravado better
than the wisest dispositions to insure victory; it comes from
the heart and goes to it. God has made nobler heroes, but he
never made a finer gentleman than Walter Raleigh. And as our
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