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toious commentator to mean the virtuously brave, his maxim would be undeniable: but if by the truly brave, he means the constitutionally brave,—as, by instancing the example of King Richard, he evidently does,—then it is false; for, unhappily, the truly brave, in this sense, have stained the records of all ages with deeds of unnecessary cruelty.
"Had Richard," says the Dissertation, "once been"—(like Macbeth,)—"a feeling and conscientious character, when his end drew nigh he might also have betrayed evidences of timidity; and if Macbeth"—(like Richard,)—"originally had been a hardened villain,"—(a hardened villain
