No Preface
This book embeds its stories about moral heroes (who are explicitly contrasted to military heroes) in a frame narrative: Here a mother conducts didactic dialogues with her two sons, John and James, who in turn discuss the issue of moral versus military heroism with their friends. The text engages with current definitions of heroism, which it contests and qualifies from a Christian and pacifist position. This discourse about the heroic takes off in an important religious and commemorative institution of British society, St Paul’s Cathedral. Possibly because of its esteem for moral heroism, the book also includes some examples of female heroism. The strong emphasis on moral (rather than physical action) heroism appears to facilitate the incorporation of female examples.
In the book’s introductory chapter, John and James are impressed by the monuments for military heroes in St. Paul’s Cathedral: [5] “‘What a grand thing it is to be courageous, to fight valiantly, to die gloriously!’” This is contested by their mother: “‘I do not think being courageous means fighting: nor do I think being killed in battle is dying gloriously.’” This raises her sons’ objection: “‘But it says so here, in this place of Christian worship’, persisted John. ‘It is written on the marble’, added James.” The mother then leads the boys to two other monuments in the cathedral which, to her, also represent heroes: [6] “one was erected to John Howard, and the other to Samuel Johnson. When they [the boys] pronounced the names, they looked at their mother with surprise. ‘Are you not mistaken’, said John. ‘These were good men, but not heroes.’ ‘I think them both heroes’, replied the mother. ‘Both great conquerors, particularly Howard, who fought a good fight with cruelty, oppression, and evil of various kinds. [7] He fought not in the company of allies, but alone; through danger, personal suffering, fatigue, and privations of every kind, and all to do his fellow-creatures good – to comfort the sorrowful, to relieve the wretched, to succour the sick: – and he conquered; for thousands bless his name. His spirit is to this hour animating many. Oh! He was indeed valiant – a champion of truth, and a messenger of mercy.’” And she continues: “‘And I look too with pleasure on Dr. Johnson’s monument, because he gave a noble example of perseverance, industry, and learning. He classified our language, and enriched our literature, and, by the constant exercise of his talents, left the world wiser in many things than he found it. Such men I call heroes.’” Her son retorts: “‘But that is not the usual way in which people apply the word’, said John. ‘It is always used to denote chieftains and warriors.’ ‘There are many common terms and phrases misapplied, and therefore misunderstood’, replied his mother; ‘and among those most frequently wrongly used are the words valour, courage, bravery, heroism. They are supposed to mean a willingness to fight, a [8] contempt of danger, and a love of war. Now, I think, true courage, real bravery, the great and heroic in the noblest sense, has nothing whatever to do with the horrors and bloodshed of war, and the fierceness and fury of warriors.’”
Leaving St Paul’s, the boys are not convinced and prefer reading books about warriors.
[9] “Their mother, ever watchful over them, was convinced that her boys had learned a dangerous lesson from the monuments of the warriors; indeed it was evident that, although they generally respected her opinions, and were both dutiful and affectionate youths, they thought her somewhat mistaken on this one subject. It was clear to them that the character of a great warrior was made up of many noble qualities, and was well worthy of admiration and imitation.”
“At school, they talked to their young companions, and the majority of the boys agreed that a hero meant a warrior, and that such men as Alexander, Caesar, William the Conqueror, the Black Prince, the Duke of Marlborough, Napoleon, and Wellington, were // [10] the greatest and bravest of mortals.” […] “Meanwhile their mother had not been idle; she was in the habit, two evenings in every week, of talking or reading to them on some interesting and instructive subject, and seeing how strong a propensity they showed in favour of warlike characters, she took an early opportunity to resume the conversation on courage and valour.”
[12] “‘[…] Now, while I think courage, that is, bravery to make great attempts, and fortitude to endure great trials, is one of the noblest qualities a human being [13] can possess, I think, when it has been applied to carry on war, that it becomes ferocity, rashness, cruelty, and vainglorious hardihood. War never did any good, it has always done a fearful amount of evil, that no tongue can tell, and no mind can calculate; and therefore, those qualities you speak of as necessary to carry on war are misapplied, put to a bad purpose […] – do you not see that clearly?’”
The mother knows from where her son’s wrong ideas about courage and heroism originate: “‘I am neither surprised nor angry that this should be so. I know that histories, biogra[14]phies and many other school-books, speak in terms of admiration of the character of a warrior; he is called a hero, and young persons, boys especially, think his career very splendid and worthy of highest admiration; other characters may be very excellent, but this is thought pre-eminently great and noble. It is a common error, but not the less an error because it is common: and as I greatly desire to see you free from unchristian, foolish, and dangerous prejudices, I should like to show you, from the lives of the good and wise who have benefited their fellow-creatures and blessed the world by their labours, that real heroism does not belong to those men who have employed their lives and their talents in destroying their fellow-creatures, but to those who have benefited them. I wish to show you, that a man may be a hero, and yet not be a warrior; that he may have fortitude, without learning it in forced marches and on the blood-stained battle-field; that he may be brave and noble, and yet live a life of peace and usefulness; nay, that these very qualities are seen in their highest excellence when united with meekness, love, and all the gentler virtues.’”
The boys’ fascination with “interesting lives” is commented thus by their mother: [15] “‘[T]he reason you like them best is, because the interest is confined for the time to an account of one individual, and we enter into the joys and sorrow from a feeling of personal sympathy.’” She then decides to read to her boys what she once excerpted from biographies: “The following chapters were the result of the mother’s endeavour to teach her sons ‘a more excellent way’ of considering human character, and understanding the truly heroic [16] in human actions.”
Chapter XI, on “heroism exhibited in the female character”, begins with a general discussion of the possibility of heroic behaviour of women: [312] “As the sphere of woman’s duties is limited for the most part to the social circle, her station in society being ordinarily that of subordination, superficial or arrogant observers may suppose that the quality called moral heroism is not often found united with the female character. This, however, is a conclusion which the wise and discerning will not be likely to arrive at, for this reason; as it is a mental quality not depending on bodily strength, it may be exhibited by the weakest and most tender in physical structure, equally with the most hardy and robust. And the sex who [313] are called to endure the greatest amount of suffering – whose cares, while they may be more limited, are certainly more affecting, and probably more incessant, endure a discipline of circumstance likely to produce a very great amount of the quality under consideration. No station in life is more important and arduous than that of a wife and a mother. The happiness and the virtue of society depend mainly on the wise and faithful fulfilment of those relationships.”
[314] “The difficulty of portraying instances of moral heroism in women, does not arise from scarcity, but is rather the difficulty of wise selection from a mighty mass of material.”
[316] “One fact, however, is apparent – that moral heroism in woman, to be permanent, is always the result of piety. In man it sometimes, as we have seen, may spring from what is called strength of mind, or philosophical contemplation. In woman this is rarely the case. Her reasoning powers seldom lead her to delight in drawing supports and incitements from varied sources of investigation; but with the trusting confidence of a child in the command of a parent, she goes at once to Scripture, and learns there, and there only, the reasons on which to sustain her hope, and the encouragements to foster her moral heroism.”
Contents
Chapter IIntroductory: a Conversation on Valour and Heroism 1
Chapter II
Moral Heroism, displayed in alleviating the Misery of others – John Howard 16
Chapter III
Moral Heroism, in removing Ignorance and Poverty – John Frederick Oberlin, Robert Walker 59
Chapter IV
Moral Heroism, exhibited in Self-conquest – John Bunyan, Dr. Alexander Murray, Dr. Hope 88
Chapter V
Moral Heroism, in planting Colonies, making Laws and teaching Christianity – William Penn, Robert Moffat, John Williams 119
Chapter VI
Moral Heroism, in bearing Poverty and practising Self-culture, under adverse circumstances – William Gifford, Heyne, and the brother Milne 156
Chapter VII
Moral Heroism, in advancing the Interest of Science – Linneus, Brindley, Arkwright, and Sir Humphrey Davy 189
Chapter VIII
Moral Heroism, in enduring Disappointment – Columbus, Edwards, Clarkson, and Wilberforce 231
Chapter IX
Moral Heroism, under personal Affliction – Milton, Baxter, Dr. Johnson, and Robert Hall 259
Chapter X
Moral Heroism, in faithfully admonishing the Great, in visiting the Outcast, and in enduring Provocation, Threatenings, and Danger – Thomas Shillitoe, Daniel Wheeler – Events during the Irish Rebellion 291
Chapter XI
Moral Heroism, exhibited in the female character – Lady Rachael Russell, Wife of the Scotch Covenanter, Elizabeth Fry 318
Chapter XII
Moral Heroism, in the ordinary pursuit of life – William Hutton – Devonshire Magistrate – Conclusion 352