HEROES AND HEROISM.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 146, 27 July 1914, Page 5

HEROES AND HEROISM.

There are two kinds of heroes: one %rto is a born hero —whose nature is heroic; and the other who, the desperate struggle for life, sets his teeth at the puny weakness of self fuid wages war with - overwhelming Odds. There are these two kinds of Iteroes an d heroines. Keep them in jlnind. IN SUN AND SHADOW. The world mourns for a brave man, J&rying aloud its grief at its loss. Thus of very late has it cried for the loss of (sustav Hamel, that heroic young lord of the air. _ And though the world frequently apportions its sorrow, in a measure prompted by the spectacularity and popular attractiveness of the heroism, yet in mourning Ilamel so fully, the "world was just. For, though he was of that nature to which heroism is the work of an ordinary day, yet was he greater than the man who merely knows no danger. He had a work to do, and he did it. He flew. Yes, he did that, and did it better than any of his brother eagles. But he accomplished far more than that. He led the way in experiments in the new science. He blazed the trail for great things in aviation, and blazed it at the risk —at af hundred risks —of his life. A buffet threw him back —on his feet. . A blow sent him reeling —and he prop--i ped himself up with his back against the wall. And, after each set-back, he ; rushed into the fray afresh, and determined to do even greater things than , those in which he had been temporarily defeated. THE GREATNESS OF THE LITTLE. But the world whs knew Hamel, and loved him for his daring, disdains millions of almost equal heroes. Hamel "had the wings with which he soared into the sun of the public imagination, fiut there are myriads who, having no such heavenly parts, must fight thoir heroic way, unknown, unseen, and unacknowledged. And those who are unacknowledged are like to fail in a belief in theitiselves. Listen! They live in a tiny cottage in one of those East End suburbs whose Streets and houses, whose very air and sunlight, seem all grey, where there is only the dross of the world with all its gold extracted. Or so it seems. They have five children. He earns seventeen shillings a A few days ago I heard that she ■ "was unwell, and went to see her. She •was ill; her feet were swollen, so that She could not put her boots on. And, of course, one can imagine the disreputable state of the dwelling. I had imagined it before I reached the house. My mind's eye had seen cobwebs a<}rowding the ceiling - corners and dust carpeting chair and* table, ornament, and cloth. A week's debris upon the floor, and unwashed dishes lumbering the kitchen. But I was.wrong, all wrong. The door-step was ,jiewly whitened, and the "brass knocker beamed a welcome. She, the ill woman, greeted me with a happy smile, and escorted me into a living place as spick and span and clean as the deck of a battleship. The May sun shone in upon her work, and could discover no spot of grease and scarce a stray speck of dust. And, "With great happiness in her voice, she called to her children—bonny, rosycneeked youngsters, shining with cleanliness. And she did not know she was a heroine. THE SPIRIT OF ALL-POWERFUL-NESS.

Oh, you, who know no acclamation of the populace, whose lives are led in the dim and dusty burrows of undistinguished humanity, lift up your heads awhile and drink of the spirit the Almighty offers to great and little alike. You are men and women, and it is Buch as you who are become heroic. Take the strength that is given you and jcome to know yourselves. To-day'and to-morrow tasks await you "Whose magnitude affrights your conception of yourself. The work you have to do seems too great a burden for your weakness. The rebuff you suffered seems to have left you feeble. But of what "you" do you speak? Merely of the being raised in your own conception. > For you are linked, in your soul, with Omnipotence, and through your spirit may draw the divine breath—a strength that knows no weariness, a will that knows no faltering. While you live you have this. While you live you are unbeaten. While you Jive success has sixty seconds in every Hdnute in which to turn and to face you. , And the spirit of heroism is within you to keep you fighting for every one of those sixty seconds in every minute and there are battles to be fought. Evil chance will array vast hordes against your feebleness. Misfortune will beat you down, beat you to your knees. ; But with the right spirit and a knowledge of yourself, with a heart that still ■beats, and a will that may think you Sire not beaten. You are the winner thus. The victory is yours. You cannot be beaten—j&fary Champion, in the "Express."