English

Noun

manfulness ‎(plural manfulnesses)

1. The state of being manful
   • 1881, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present:

     He will at least have the manfulness to depart out of it, if not; to say: "I cannot move in thee, and be a man; like a wretched drift-log dressed in man's clothes and minister's clothes, doomed to a lot baser than belongs to man, I will not continue with thee, tumbling aimless on the Mother of Dead Dogs here:--Adieu!"

   • 1881, Charles Kingsley, Westminster Sermons:

     He only sees his own weakness, and want of life, of spirit, of manfulness, of power.

   • 1825, Thomas Carlyle, The Life of Friedrich Schiller:

     Nor were these sentiments, be it remembered, the mere boasting manifesto of a hot-brained inexperienced youth, entering on literature with feelings of heroic ardour, which its difficulties and temptations would soon deaden or pervert: they are the calm principles of a man, expressed with honest manfulness, at a period when the world could compare them with a long course of conduct.