The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-04-25

HEROES HEROIC AND UNlIER0IC.-And so
also has the reading world taught itself to
like best The characters Of all but divine men
and women. Let the man who pliutS with
pen and ink give thc ga>-ii@iii anh t':c flesh
pots, the passions and pains. he prir!ent
prudence and the rOuge-potS and pouncc-
boxes ur the world aS it is, and he will he
told that no one can care straw for his cre:-
lions. With whom are we to SynlntiZa! =!
SAYS the reader, who not unnaturaily imaSineS
that 4 hero should be heroic. oh, thou, my
reader, whose sympathicS are in truth the
great and only aim OF my work, when you
have called the dearest of your friends round
you to your hoSpitahle table. how many
heroes are there sitting 1T the board: Your
bosom friend, even il hc be 4 knight without
fear. is he Il knight without reproach! The
Ivanloc that you know, did he not press
Re5ccca'S hand: Your Lord Erandalc, did
he not bring his cornet into play when he
StrOyc TO win his Edith Bcllcnden! Was
your TrrSilian still true and still forbcarlng
when truth and lorbclrncc could avail him
nothing: And those sweet girls whom you
know. do they never doubt between the poor
man they think they love and the rich man
whose riches they know they coyct!
Go into the market, either to buy or sell,
and name the thing you desire to part with
or to get, aS it is, and the market is closed
against YOU. Nliddling oats are sweepngs
of the granaricS. A useful horse is jade
gone at every point. Good sound port is
Sloe juice. No assurance short of y bcto-
kenS even 4 plctence to merit. And yet in
real life we are content with oats that are
really middling, are very glad to have Il USE
full horse, and know that il we drink port at
IL, I,;, tbat j.. fl,o,
or sound. In those delincations of life and
character which we call novels, 4 similarly sli-
uerlatiye vein is desired. Our own friends
around It's are not always merry and wise,
nor. alas, always honest and true. They are
often cross and foolish, and sometimes trcach-
erols and false. They arc so, and we are
angry. Then we forgive them, not without
Il consciousness Of imperfcction on our own
part. And we know, or at least believe, that
though they be sometimes treacllcrolls and
false, there is Il balance of good. We cannot
have heroes to dine with us. There are none
And were these heroes to be had, we should
not like them. But neither are our friends
villains, whose every aspiration is for evil,
and whose every moment is struggle for
some achievement worthy of the devil.
The persons whom you cannot care for in
Il novel because they are so bad, are the very
same that you 50 dearly love in your life be-
cause they are SO good. 10 make them and
ourselves somewhat better, pot by one
spring hcavenward to perfection, because we
cannot 50 use our legs, but by slow climb
ing, is, we may presume, the object OF all
teachers, leaders, legislators, spiritual pas
tors, and masters. lie who writes tales such
,s this probably also has, very humbly, some
such Object distantly before him. a picture
of SURPRISING godlike nobleness, q picture OF
King Arthur among men, may perhaps 90
much. But such pictures cannot do all.
When such picture is painted, as intending
to show what man should be, ii Is true. Ii
painted to show what men are, it IS false.
The true picture Of life AS it is, if it could be
adequately painted, would show men what
they are and how they might rise, not in.
deed to perfection, but one step first, ana
then another, on the ladder" EAstace Na-
naoad," 6y Anh0ny Irollope.