JB/015/540/001

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Of all that is most pernicious in admiration, the admiration of
Heroes is the most pernicious – & how delusions should have made
us admire what virtue should teach us to hate & loathe is among
the saddest evidences of human weakness & folly. How The crimes of heroes seem
buried in the magnitude greatness of their enormity. The A lively idea of the
mischief they do – of the misery they create over seldom penetrates our
minds – through the delusions which with which thoughtlessness & falsehood have surrounded their names & deeds. The magnitude of these abominations the would seem too gigantic to find entrance place in our bosoms. We read of
twenty thousand men killed in a battle with no other feeling than that
only half the number fell on some other similar occasion. Twenty thousand or ten thousand – what reck us of their miserable sufferings? The
hosts who perished are the evidence of the completeness of the victory –
& the completeness of the victory is the glory of the few conquerer. Our
schoolmasters & the immoral & lying books they so often put into our hands
have inspired us with an affection for heroes, – & the hero is
more heroic in proportion to the numbers of the slain. Add a
cypher – not one iota is added to our disapprobation. Four or
two figures give us no more sentiment of pain than one figure
while they add marvellously to the grandeur & splendor of the
trio conqueror victor. Let us draw forth one individual from those thousands or
tens of thousands – his leg has been shivered by one ball – his
jaw broken by another – his eye beaten out by a shard one eye is the other starting out of his head with agony – he
is bathed in his own blood & that of his fellows – yet he lives
agonized tortured by thirst, – fainting –famishing – he is but one of
the twenty thousand – one of the actors & sufferers in the scene
of the hero's glory. Look again. Admirers of that hero! Look
again. Is your admiration abated? Is not this wretchedness – because
it is repeated ten – ten hundred – ten thousand times – is not
this wretchedness still?

The time period will assuredly arrive when more enlightened
generations will require all the evidence of history to credit that

Identifier: | JB/015/540/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 15.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	015	Main Headings	deontology
Folio number	540	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	linking material	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f226
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks	hall
Marginals		Paper Producer	louis francois joseph le dieu
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	5756
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