To engage in a short struggle with a visible foe with a definite end near and certain is far easier than to endure the long drawn and indefinite. This is because man is primarily well equipped for the immediate struggle of hunting and war, but is not gifted by nature with power to endure.
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5. The wolf’s a coward, who, in goodly packs, etc.
The wolf pack symbolizes the mob. The law of mob life is cruelty, and cruelty is always cowardly.
10. How some great beast that shambled like a bear
Why “shambled like a bear”?
24. Woe in the silken meshes of the friend,
25. Weal in the might and menace of the foe.
The friend often weakens his friend. The opposition of the enemy develops his strength.
Define: lacerated, vituperative, prodigious, frenzy, weal.