232 "WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



it ! and what renders the parallel still more complete is, that 

 when the humble mechanician has accomplished the work, has 

 chained an element with a silken thread, he looks upon the 

 mighty achievement as nothing, and is bowed down with 

 shame that men should so wonder at a thing so plain. 



Your true hero never understands why men should marvel 

 that he has only done his duty, and the plaudits of the crowd 

 are to him only a heart sickening commentary upon its own 

 unworthiness. Why should they applaud him for only acting 

 like a man ? Had they expected him to act like a brute, and 

 therefore been surprised into raptures ? Or was it that they 

 were conscious that they would have acted like brutes them- 

 selves under the same circumstances ? 



The world may say what it may of the natural equality of 

 mankind, but there is often more in one large brain and large 

 heart than in a whole nation. It is not by any means, learn- 

 ing, or station, or honors that constitutes this greatness ; 

 these are but the tinsel, the appliances, the outward show, 

 in a word, 



"The man's the man for a' that;" 



and it was indeed among the early scenes of the settlement 

 of Kentucky, that the fine gold was separated and that the 

 man stood forth in the nude grandeur of the heroic virtues. 



There was nothing of the pomp and circumstance here of 

 adventitious place, to bolster up padded and pretentious no- 

 bility. State was trampled in the bloody mire of struggle, 

 and all regalia, but such as nature had bestowed, turned into 

 plough-lines and significant halters. 



The contest here was hand to hand, and foot to foot, with 

 foes too stern and real for a silken diplomate to soothe. In 

 his unhoused wild condition, the strong man wrestled with 

 the panther for its cave, and took its dappled hide for cover- 

 ing. Starched ruffs and white gloves would have served ill 

 in such a battle. The death-hug, when the white man and 



