Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

.

POPULAR APPETITE FOR HEROES. 77

sures people are in the habit of passing upon a man eminent in one department for disappointing their expectations in not being eminent in another department. What complaint is more frequently heard than that of some hero-worshipper who expresses his surprise at the "great" Napoleon's many littlenesses of character under captivity; or at the cowardice of Cicero when pursued by the emissaries of Antony? A juster estimate of the pretensions of either of these celebrated men would have dissipated all surprise. It would have made it clear that the former, who was a soldier and man of action, never advanced any claim to be considered a moral philosopher; and that the latter, who was a philosopher, is not to be blamed for not having the qualities of a soldier. But this distinction it is impossible for the hero-worshipper to make. He looks for a "whole man" whose faculties are co-ordinate, whose function it is to be great a man who is excellent in every circumstance and in all respects-a Brahmin of the race.

Nothing less than this in a man will, it seems, satisfy the strong popular appetite for hero-worship. Ignorant people, in all ages, require some tangible, some personal, representative of the qualities they admire. They cannot see a principle until it is personified-they cannot discriminate between the qualities and their possessor; and as, of old, Deme

trius the silversmith made gods for the people of Ephesus, so to-day Mr. Carlyle, or somebody else, supplies the public exigency with respect to heroes. People cry for gods, and there is never wanting an Aaron to gratify their wishes. They add the cubits to a man's stature, and then pay their money to see a giant they have themselves created. Nor does it much matter to hero-worshippers what the claimants for their regard may be-"Scourges of God," or, "Dar

66

lings of the human race,"—only they must make a great noise, or have a great noise made for them; let them be but "sufficient" men, whether of sword, or of tongue, or of pen, and they cannot fail to be apotheosised.

A "great" man, indeed, is nothing more than one who has achieved a great reputation; his "greatness" being in the ratio of his fame. So we find Swift making the avowal to Bolingbroke that all his endeavours to distinguish himself arose from want of a great title and fortune, that he may be used like a lord by those who had an opinion of his parts; for, he adds, "the reputation of wit or great learning "does the office of a blue riband, or of a coach and "six horses,"—that is, it carries power. The favourite design of Napoleon also was to make a great noise. 66 A great reputation," he says, "is a great "noise; the more there is made, the farther off it is

ITS DETRIMENTAL EFFECT.

79

"heard. Laws, institutions, monuments, nations“all fall; but the noise continues and resounds in "after ages." He was right, and he made a great noise accordingly; he is the best-heard man of all times.

His

Much and very general abuse has been showered upon the celebrated valet who was not able, like the rest of the world, to see in his master a great man. I have often tried to be very indignant with him, but whenever I made the attempt, it must be confessed that my rage refused to rise. It always struck me there was too much to be said in the fellow's favour. Clearly the valet did not regard his master as a hero; but how can he be blamed? master had never come before him in the character. In breaking the shell of an egg, or in buttoning his braces, there is little room for the display of the heroic side of a man's character. This the poor valet had never witnessed. Must we abuse him, then, for not regarding as a hero a man who to him has never exhibited himself as a hero? Shall we not rather praise him for being wise enough not to see a hero before he appears?

This exaltation of heroes-this sycophantic homage to great names repeated from generation to generation till they are depressing-has become detrimental to the best interests of humanity. It breeds habitual

contempt in one class of people for the pursuits and actions of another; it tends to encourage the absurd popular notion of some "coming man," who, in any emergency, is expected to set things right; it tends to discourage the recognition and ready acceptance of the fact that association, organization, and division of labour, are the truest means that can be adopted for the material and moral progress of mankind; it praises the past at the expense of the present; in a word, it is an incubus upon civilization itself.

[graphic]
[graphic]

ON TAKING A MAN'S MEASURE.

HE attainment of correct judgment on men and things is proverbially a difficult task. The readiest disposition to arrive at a true issue concerning the simplest

event in every-day life is very frequently altogether ineffectual. Some mental bias, unrecognized, perhaps, by the sufferer himself, will have the effect of shunting a man off the right track, and diverting his mind from the solution which afterwards he will clearly perceive was the true one. So common, indeed, are errors in judgment, that most men admit their liability to them, and many even pride themselves upon the readiness with which they avow their mistake when it has been discovered. There are directions, however, in which this admirable temper is no longer manifested. A man, however deferential he may be in other respects, is prone

[graphic]

G

« AnteriorContinuar »