, 1921-10-19
THE MODERN TYPE OF HERO.

moral influences work In all the sciences" asserts
the National Republican, and Il ought TO be reeog-
that modern life has brought a new heroic type into
being. This is not, SO far as we know, disputed by
anyone; but there are those who have never thought
Of it.
"Ancient heroes died for a c~hieftain, for their
country or for their faith. In the Middle Ages and
in modern times they have had successors, essential
ly like themselves, having the same emotions, and Civ
ing with the came courage the last full measure of
DEVOTION There are no men in any twentieth cen
There can never be higher praise for a Christian
martyr than to compare him to the young Stephen,
slain by the mob or the aged st. John. banished to his
dreary island.
Centuries have rolled between US and the Apos-
ties, each one bringing out the same high courage that
endures to the end. All Europe sent brave men to
sisted Moors both as foes of Spain and foes of the
Cross-indeed that spirit is now in evidence The
religious wars of the sixteenth century often found
religion and patriotism hand in hand, as they have
been in Russia and Armenia. Within a brief space,
Christians have gone to their death in China as brave
ly as any who were slain N pagan Rome.
But even to the learned priests Of Egypt and the
bright Investigators of Greece it would have been a
surprise to hear that men were so bent on gathering
facts about nature as to risk every form of hazard.
Now and then a scholar faced perils, as a travelling
merchant did, or as any man fond Of hunting did;
still the world cannot be said to have had a scientific
CORPS For hundreds of years the world seems to have
fuctuated in its opinion Of students, now almost wor-
shipping them, now looking on them as sorcerers who
deserved a fiery death, certainly not expecting them
to develop the aggressive spirit of the warrior and the
calm courage of the martyr.
To-day there is no department Of learning with
out those who have sacrificed their lives for it or who
are ready to do SO. II gold-hunters have run the
gauntlet Of savage tribes, professors have left their
college chairs to investigate ruined walls and mould
ering tablets. There might be deadly gas in a cav
ern. there might be venomous serpents in n forest,
there might be treachcrous reefs in an unknown sea,
nevertheless the volunteers were ready. Into the
polar sea, above the clouds, under the waves, heroes
of the new type have gone. The number and the
zeal Of these recruits might have dazed Hipparchus
or Bacon. a
"A more accurate map, better botanical classifca-
ton, a heap Of fossils, a higher flight, a deciphered in
~scription, a new species Of insects. any of these or a
hundred more o~bjectives may lead someone to spend
money as freely as Percival Lowell spent his upon his
observatory, or to jeopardize his life as Stefansson is
doing. The boldest knight of chivalry might have
shrunk from a voyage far above ground ard a battle
with an angry mountain eagle. Had he been asked
to plunge into the depths Of a mysterious sea he
would probably have feared that n mermaid would
take his life and that his soul would be lost for his
presumption.
''There were in the early Christian centuries those
who courted martyrdom and almost Enthusiastically in
vited their own death. In the Middle Ages there were
chivalric feats that to less emotional minds seem like
madness. So do some Of the attachments of scientists
seem unworthy Of the high toll paid for them. But
the hero may be judged by those who are not fit to
judge him. His lack of proportion may be sneered at
by some who have never had a CLEAN of the heroic.
It may be that those who die in the search of knowl-
edge are gifted with a vision unknown to those who
merely seek the ordinary comforts of life"