AND HUMANITY

BY WHICH HE HAD BEEN LONG DISTINGUISHED.

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Mr. Gladstone, in a recent lecture thus defines a hero: quoting Latham's
definition of a hero,--'a man eminent for bravery,' he said he was not
satisfied with that, because bravery might be mere animal bravery.
Carlyle had described Napoleon I. as a great hero. 'Now he (Mr.
Gladstone) was not prepared to admit that Napoleon was a hero. He was
certainly one of the most extraordinary men ever born. There was more
power concentrated in that brain than in any brain probably born for
centuries. That he was a great man in the sense of being a man of
transcendent power, there was no doubt; but his life was tainted with
selfishness from beginning to end, and he was not ready to admit that a
man whose life was fundamentally tainted with selfishness was a hero. A
greater hero than Napoleon was the captain of a ship which was run down
in the Channel three or four years ago, who, when the ship was
quivering, and the water was gurgling round her, and the boats had been
lowered to save such persons as could be saved, stood by the bulwark
with a pistol in his hand and threatened to shoot dead the first man who
endeavoured to get into the boat until every woman and child was
provided for. His true idea of a hero was this:--A hero was a man who
must have ends beyond himself, in casting himself as it were out of
himself, and must pursue these ends by means which were honourable, the
lawful means, otherwise he might degenerate into a wild enthusiast. He
must do this without distortion or disturbance of his nature as a man,
because there were cases of men who were heroes in great part, but who
were so excessively given to certain ideas and objects of their own,
that they lost all the proportion of their nature. There were other
heroes, who, by giving undue prominence to one idea, lost the just
proportion of things, and became simply men of one idea. A man to be a
hero must pursue ends beyond himself by legitimate means. He must pursue
them as a man, not as a dreamer. Not to give to some one idea
disproportionate weight which it did not deserve, and forget everything
else which belonged to the perfection and excellence of human nature. If
he did all this he was a hero, even if he had not very great powers; and
if he had great powers, then he was a consummate hero.'

Now, if we cannot claim for the late Mr. Ellerthorpe 'great