n, is a threefold
division of rational beings, with which we meet more than once or twice.
Those grand old Greeks felt deeply the truth of the poet's saying--

"Unless above himself he can
Exalt himself, how poor a thing is man."

But more: the Greeks supposed these heroes to be, in some way or other,
partakers of a divine nature; akin to the gods; usually, either they, or
some ancestor of theirs, descended from a god or goddess. Those who have
read Mr. Gladstone's 'Juventus Mundi' will remember the section (cap. ix.
section 6) on the modes of the approximation between the divine and the
human natures; and whether or not they agree with the author altogether,
all will agree, I think, that the first idea of a hero or a heroine was a
godlike man or godlike woman.

A godlike man. What varied, what infinite forms of nobleness that word
might include, ever increasing, as men's notions of the gods became purer
and loftier, or, alas! decreasing, as their notions became degraded. The
old Greeks, with that intense admiration of beauty which made them, in
after ages, the master sculptors and draughtsmen of their own, and,
indeed, of any age, would, of course, require in their hero, their
godlike man, beauty and strength, manners, too, and eloquence, and all
outward perfections of humanity, and neglect his moral qualities.
Neglect, I say, but not ignore. The hero, by virtue of his kindred with
the gods, was always expected to be a better man than common men, as
virtue was then understood. And how better? Let us see.

The hero was at least expected to be more reverent than other men to
those divine beings of whose nature he partook, whose society he might
enjoy even here on earth. He might be unfaithful to his own high
lineage; he might misuse his gifts by selfishness and self-will; he
might, like Ajax, rage with mere jealousy and wounded pride till his rage
ended in shameful madness and suicide. He might rebel against the very
gods, and all laws of right and wrong, till he perished in his [Greek
text],

"Smitten down, blind in his pride, for a sign and a terror to
mortals."

But he ought to have, he must have, to be true to his name of Hero,
justice, self-restraint, and [Greek text]--that highest form of modesty,
for which we have, alas! no name in the English tongue; that perfect
respect for the feelings of others which springs out of perfect
self-respect. And he must have, too--if he were to be a h