12 True Nobles and Heroes.

Glide swiftly, bright spirits! the prize is before ye— .
The crown never-fading, the kingdom of glory.”

Who is there without love of the heroic,
and this aspiration after nobility? Does
not the boy at school feel the blood coursing
through his veins more swiftly, as he reads
in Grecian and Roman history of old warriors,
the record of whose deeds will make the
heart thrill as long as history exists, and can
he help admiring such men as the “ brave
Horatius, who kept the bridge at Rome,” and
defended it against the thousands pressing
on him, and only when he could hold out
no longer, swam the Tiber with his armour
on? or Leonidas, who kept the pass of
Thermopyle with three hundred Spartans
against the myriad hosts of the enemy?
He clenches his little fists behind him, and
resolves that with but half the chance, he
will show to his admiring friends and loving
parents that he has got the right stuff in
him to make a hero. How the midshipman
aims at the “blue ribbon” of honourable
mention in the commander’s despatches
(if it shall ever be his fortune to be
engaged in actual warfare), even if he does