Heroes Every Child Should Know | Page 6

most powerful of the heroes to Greek and Roman boys
was set to do the most difficult things not for himself but for others. He
destroyed lions, hydras, wild boars, birds with brazen beaks and wings,
mad bulls, many-headed monsters, horses which fed on human flesh,
dragons, he mastered the three-headed dog Cerberus, he tore asunder
the rocks at the Strait of Gibraltar which bear his name to open a
channel between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. He fought the
Centaur and brought back Alcestis, the wife of Admetus, from the pale
regions of death where she had gone to save her husband's life. In all
these labors, which were so great that works of extraordinary
magnitude have since been called Herculean, the brave, patient,
suffering hero, was helping other people rather than helping himself.
And this was true of Thor, the strong god of the Norsemen whose
hammer was the most terrible weapon in the world, the roll and crash

of thunder being the sound of it and the blinding lightning the flash of it.
The gods were the friends of men, giving the light and warmth and
fertility of the summer that the fields might bear food for them and the
long, bright days might bring them peace and happiness. And the giants
were the enemies of men, tirelessly trying to make the fields desolate
and stop the singing of birds and shroud the sky in darkness by driving
away summer with the icy breath of winter. In this perpetual conflict
Thor was the hero of strength and courage, beating back the giants,
defeating their schemes and fighting the battle for gods and men with
tireless zeal; counting no peril or hardship too great if there was heroic
work to be done.
Courage and achievement are the two signs of the hero; he may possess
or lack many other qualities, but he must be daring and he must do
things and not dream or talk about them.
From the days of Hercules to those of Washington and Livingston, men
of heroic spirit have not stopped to count the cost when a deed must be
done but have done it, usually with very little talk or noise; for heroes,
as a rule, are much more interested in getting their work done than in
making themselves conspicuous or winning a reputation. Heroes have
often been harsh and even brutal, especially in the earliest times when
humane feeling and a compassionate spirit had not been developed;
Siegfried, Jason, Gustavas Adolphus and Von Tromp were often
arbitrary and oppressive in their attitude toward men; and, in later times,
Alfred the Great, William the Silent and Nelson were not without
serious defects of temper and sometimes of character. Men are not
great or heroic because they are faultless; they are great and heroic
because they dare, suffer, achieve and serve.
And men love their heroes not because they have been perfect
characters under all conditions, but because they have been brave, true,
able, and unselfish, A man may have few faults and count for very little
in the world, because he lacks force, daring, the greatness of soul which
moves before a generation like a flaming torch; a man may lead a
stainless life, not because he is really virtuous but because he has very
few temptations within or without. Some of the most heroic men have

put forth more strength in resisting a single temptation than men of
theories and more commonplace natures put forth in a life time. The
serious faults of heroes are not overlooked or forgotten; the great man
is as much the servant of the moral law as the little man, and pays the
same price for disobedience; but generosity of spirit, devotion to high
aims and capacity for self-sacrifice often outweigh serious offences.
Nelson is less a hero because he yielded to a great temptation; but he
remains a hero in spite of the stain on his fame. It is much better not to
be profane under any circumstances, but when Washington swore
fiercely at Charles Lee on the battle field of Monmouth his profanity
was the expression of the righteous wrath of a good man. In judging the
hero one must take into account the age in which he lived, the
differences in moral standards between the past and the present, and the
force of the temptations which come with strength of body, passion,
imagination, great position, colossal enterprises; these do not conceal
or excuse the faults of heroes but they explain those faults.
The men whose bravery and great deeds are described in these pages
have been selected not because they are faultless in character and life,
but because they were brave, generous, self-forgetful, self- sacrificing
and capable of splendid deeds. Men love and honour them not