122 Overdoing the Past 



the millions who are battling as nobly to- 

 day ? It is not belittling the heroes of other 

 days and it matters nothing if it is to 

 claim for the present equally heroic men. 

 The condition may not arise to bring them 

 to the fore, but who shall say that they do 

 not exist and merely wait the trumpet call 

 of opportunity ? Never a hero fell, but an 

 equal was ready to replace him. What is a 

 hero ? A man equal to the hour's emer- 

 gency, and how many emergencies have not 

 been met? No such pernicious twaddle 

 finds its way to the printed page as the 

 idolatrous laudation of those who have been 

 borne to high places by circumstances they 

 could not control, and gazed upon by all 

 mankind ; idolatrous, and therefore degrading 

 so far as it leads to the belief that among 

 ourselves there is no such greatness ; that the 

 glory of humanity waxed in this or that hero 

 and has since been waning. 



" I cannot agree," says a friend. " It is 

 the function of the daily press to devote 

 itself to the man of the moment. But, for 

 heaven's sake, let us get a little respite from 

 these ' actualities' when we pick up the illus- 

 trated monthly magazines ! For my part, I 



