As a rule he fights well who has wrongs to redress; but vastly better fights he who, with wrongs as a spur, has also steadily before him a glorious result in prospect--a result in which he can discern balm for wounds, compensation for valor, remembrance and gratitude in the event of death.
To determine the sufficiency of either the cause or the end, it was needful that Ben-Hur should study the adherents to whom he looked when all was ready for action.

Very naturally, they were his countrymen.
The wrongs of Israel were to every son of Abraham, and each one was a cause vastly holy, vastly inspiring.
Ay, the cause was there; but the end--what should it be?
The hours and days he had given this branch of his scheme were past calculation--all with the same conclusion--a dim, uncertain, general idea of national liberty.

Was it sufficient?
He could not say no, for that would have been the death of his hope; he shrank from saying yes, because his judgment taught him better.

He could not assure himself even that Israel was able single-handed to successfully combat Rome.

He knew the resources of that great enemy; he knew her art was superior to her resources.