Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1902-07-16

suggestion, by actually carrying out the command of the operator, and my eagerness to rid myself of this nightmare-aunt, q beg pardon) of this aunt of mine in the nightmare, so as once more to be able to resume | normal control of my mental facul- | ties.
 Ladies and Gentlemen, I have no sympathy or patience with that genus of the human species that looks down upon idealists with a supercili-
 ous contempt, and at every possible
 chance decries the idealistlc efforts
 made by enthused leaders of men,
 and by true and noble educators of
 the people and above all of the ris-
 ing generation, the hope and safe
 guard of the future.
 It has been aptly said. "A nation
 without ideals must perish from the
 earth" Why soi Because, due to
 an inherent inertia man Is but too
 prone to become sluggish and creep
 on the earth like the worm. He re-
 quires a stimulus; he is in constant
 need of an uplifting, elevating, inoit-
 ing and inspiring influence to be
 brought powerfully and, if necessary,
 painfully to bear upon his mental
 and spiritual faculties, if he would
 lead more than a mere animal exist
 ence, if he is to evolve the humaniz-
 ing agencies that make for culture,
 social order, and higher civilization.
 And there is no use of denying the patent fact that we Americans, due
 to the inevitable struggles of young
 and pioneer people with material
 forces, have come to be utilitarian and practical in the extreme. This is not said in a sense of reproach, be- cause the evolution of hation must naturally proceed-emanate from the
 material. During such a preparatory stage of national growth the latent spiritual faculties lie dormant. } cramped and crushed. Only when aroused by the vitalizing influence of
 the ideal do they manifest them
 selves from time to time, struggling for utteraneei
 , Those are the times when the ideal becomes embodied in a hero, when the ideal takes on flesh and blood, as it were. for such is the frailty of our human nature that then only does the ideal become truly real to us, when it appeals to us in human form as man to man. And again we hear the carp
 ing critics sound the note of warming against the dangers and pitfalls oi hero-worship. To be sure, all things practiced to excess are evil. But rather believe, fortunate the nation that has hero to revere, a hero tC beckon, to impel, onwards and up wards, to ever greater efforts. What inspired the Greeks to work out a civilization that in many respects has l, remained unsurpassed up to the pres } ent day? It was their hero-worship [ that highly developed and artistically y idealized, that had blazed the way oi progress for coming generations, re , gardless of peril, of toll, of persona privation and suffering. For what Is 3 the essential qualification of a hero : A hero is one who, in the endeavor to r achieve a noble humanitarian aim knows no fear whatever in striving tc reach his goal. whom temporary fail ure cannot discourage, who shirk: , from no peril nor pain, but who i: , willing to risk his all in the attempt and, if need be, to die for the cause and in the interest of humanity-tc
 die that others may live.
 , No battle, no struggle, was evel , fought by the Greeks in which, ac cording to their faith, their national l heroes did not take an active, actual t part, fighting in the upper realms oi l the purer ether above them their bat , ties with them and for them as theil
 champions and standard bearers. ? It is in times of great crises of ; : nation that heroes are apt to appeal !. on the scene, since it requires as ; . rule such exceptional opportunities tt l call forth the hitherto great com t mandlng qualities of a man and tC give them room for realization.
 } Such crisis was the Revolutionary t war at the birth of our nation, whicf l produced a veritable galaxy of grea . men. But one figure towers abov' r them all as the typical hero of tha l momentous epoch in the history O s our country: George Washington g the hero in war and peace, a rar 1. combination.
 Such a crisis-to mention only tn, a greatest crisis in our history-was th, great civil war, which stands typifieC :, in Lincoln and in Grant. Not tha | these two leaders alone accomplished :. all in their specific spheres what the, . are credited with in their popula ]. forms as national heroes. On tn, contrary, they represent to us thu - achievements of that entire epoch the achievement of all the men anC , all the measures of that perioC s focused upon and concentrated il 2 their idealized personalities. In thi l sense national heroes naturally anC ,, inevitably assume, in a greater anC greater degree proportionate to tn ,. distance of time, more or less leg g endary character-in other words come to represent an epoch in popu
 lar history in a more and more cen
 tralized, concentrated, personi6eC
 form. It is this feature of the evolu
 tion of natural popular hero that i,
 generally overlooked, feature whicl I nlaces hero worship in a differen