The great Thomas Wentworth Higginson, translator of Epictetus, abolitionist and leader of black troops in the American Civil War, explained that "Life is sweet, but it would not be sweet enough without the occasional relish of peril and the luxury of daring deeds. Perhaps every man sometimes feels this longing…when he would fain leave politics and personalities, even endearments and success behind, and would exchange the best year of his life for one hour at Balaklava with the 'Six Hundred.'"