Heroes in Peace: The 6th William Penn Lecture, May 9, 1920 — John Shaqi
Heroes in Peace: The 6th William Penn Lecture, May 9, 1920Holmes, John Haynes
Philosophy
Heroes in Peace: The 6th William Penn Lecture, May 9, 1920
Holmes, John Haynes
Heroes
of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would
have stirred the heart of every Englishman." Eight months later his
body was found, sitting erect, his arms extended to his dead companions
on either side as though his lonely soul sought at the end the comfort
of even their frozen bodies, and on his face a smile as beautiful as
that of a child just fallen into slumber.
Heroism! my friends! What is the heroism of even the bravest soldier
compared to heroism such as this? I would not disparage the men who have
suffered and died on the fields of Flanders and Galicia. But is it not
true, after all, that we can do much if only we have the dear friends to
bear us company, and that the real test comes when we stand "alone,
alone, all, all alone," with the universe and God. To work alone, like
the pioneer, with never a hand to clasp and help his own; to die alone,
like Captain Scott, with wife, child, mother, friends thousands of miles
away, all ignorant of his fate, and "still to do the best to the
last"--this is heroism. The soldier as a soldier for all his courage
cannot match it.
But there is still a third aspect of the soldier's life which touches
very vitally upon this question of heroism. I refer to the fact that the
soldier, in the vast majority of cases, is engaged in a business which
has the enthusiastic endorsement of his fellowmen. He is distinctly on
the right side. He is doing the popular thing. The eyes of the people
are upon him. He marches away to the waving of flags and the applause of
multitudes. Children cheer him, women embrace him, old men bless him. If
he is wounded, he is tenderly cared for by the nation. If he performs
some gallant deed, he is rewarded by orders of merit, and perhaps by the
gift of the Victoria Cross. If he dies, he is buried amid sounding
eulogies and commemorated by statues and inscriptions. "Victory, or
Westminster Abbey," cried Lord Nelson as he sailed into the battle of
Trafalgar. And similar, to the degree of humble deserts, is the cry of
every soldier or sailor who takes up arms for his country. For the
moment he is the symbol of the nation. He embodies within his own single
person the hopes and praises of an entire people. He lives, and, if he
dies, he dies in the good opinion of mankind. And I can tell you that
nothing makes life so smooth and death so comparatively simple as this
good opinion of which I speak. The hardest suffering seems easy, and the
most untimely death not altogether unwelcome, if only we can know that
all men are our friends, and we live or die with their blessings upon
our heads. "A good name," says the preacher, "is better than precious
ointment"; and again he declares, "A good name is better than riches."
By which he means, I take it, that there is nothing in the outer world,
however desirable in itself, which can give us compensation for the
loss of favor of mankind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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