{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_62307/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_62307","id":"gutenberg_62307","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62307","summary":null,"tags":["Boys -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Philosophy & Ethics"],"text":"DEAN\u2019s\n                      Illustrated Farthing Books.\n\n                          EVERY-DAY HEROISM.\n\n                          LONDON: DEAN & SON,\n                         11, Ludgate Hill. 48\n\n\n\n\n                          EVERY-DAY HEROISM.\n\n\n                            [Illustration]\n\n\u201cI will not try any more. Everything goes wrong to-day,\u201d exclaimed\nCharley Morris, throwing down his slate in a pet.\n\n\u201cNothing succeeds that I try to do. Everything turns out just the wrong\nway.\u201d\n\n\u201cI want you to run and get me the book,\u201d said his mother, \u201cwhich I left\non the seat at the farther end of the garden; then afterwards we will\nsee if anything can be done to coax events into a better humour.\u201d\n\nCharley returned with his face a little brighter from a moment\u2019s\nexercise in the fresh air, and seated himself at his mother\u2019s feet.\n\n\u201cDo you believe in unlucky days, mother?\u201d said he.\n\n\u201cI do not believe they come very often,\u201d said Mrs. Morris.\n\n\u201cBut how can you help their coming, mother?\u201d\n\n\u201cTreat them in such a way when they occur that they will not return very\nsoon. But now I want you to tell me what has made this day \u2018unlucky,\u2019\nand then perhaps I can tell you what to do about it.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, you see, mother, I overslept myself this morning, and was late\nat breakfast. That put me out. Then Agnes laughed at me for being so\nlate, and that made me cross.\u201d\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\u201cStop a moment, my dear, and notice where your \u2018unlucky day\u2019 began. The\ntrifling error in being late in rising cannot excuse the greater fault\nof ill-temper. A single act of self control might have altered the\ncourse of the whole day.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen, mother, I went to school feeling just as cross; I thought I had\nall my lessons perfectly; but when I got to school, I found I had\nlearned the wrong spelling-lesson, and that provoked me a little more,\nbut I set to work to learn the right one. While in the midst of that,\nthe arithmetic class was called. I had studied the lesson thoroughly\nlast night, but somehow the spelling, or being provoked, or something\nelse, had put it all out of my head, so that I missed ever so many\nquestions: and, to end it all, I have got twelve extra examples to work\nout at home. I cannot do them; it is no use trying to do anything on\nsuch days.\u201d\n\nThere was a pause of a few moments, and then his mother said:\n\n\u201cCharley, you like to read the histories of great soldiers and heroes of\nold times, such as Alexander, and C\u00e6sar, and Napoleon?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, mother, very much.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, tell me, when do you like Alexander best--feasting at Babylon--or\nin action, commanding his army, attacking the enemy, and gaining\nvictories?\u201d\n\n\u201cI like him best in action, mother, of course.\u201d\n\n\u201cTrue, we like bravery better than cowardice. When do you like best to\nread of Napoleon--imprisoned at St. Helena, or at the beginning of his\ncourse with difficulties around him, but rising above them all by his\nstrength of will?\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, I like him best in the beginning, mother,\u201d said Charley, with\nkindled enthusiasm.\n\n\u201cBut,\u201d said Mrs. Morris, \u201csuppose he could have marched by a smooth\nroad, straight from France to Italy.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy, he would not have been a hero at all, if he had not something to\nconquer.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd the will to conquer it,\u201d added Mrs. Morris with a smile. \u201c That is\njust what I want you to notice. We cannot imitate, if we would, the\nprecise actions of these great conquerors; but we _can_ copy their\nenergy and strength of purpose, and our daily life furnishes\nopportunities to cultivate these qualities.\u201d\n\n\u201cI do not see how, mother.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe life of a little school-boy presents some difficulties--does it\nnot, Charley?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, mother,\u201d he replied, glancing ruefully at his Arithmetic.\n\n\u201cThen _there_ is something to conquer, and in the conquest you can grow\nstrong and brave. Like Napoleon _you_ can never be a hero, unless you\nhave some obstacles to overcome.\u201d\n\n\u201cI wish the difficulties would not always come when I feel so cross.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe crossness is the very first thing you need to conquer. There is a\nproverb on that subject: \u201cHe that is slow to anger, is better than the\nmighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is an important thing to remember,\u201d said Mrs. Morris. \u201cIf we are\never to attain anything great or good in life, our career of conquest\nmust begin in our own hearts. Until all unruly feelings and passions\nare under control, our efforts toward knowledge, or anything else that\nis worth the winning, will be of little avail. What people call adverse\nfate, is the result of their own faults and failings.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you think one can always help feeling unpleasantly, mother?\u201d\n\n\u201cI think one can learn either to put down all disagreeable feelings, or\nto work bravely on and never mind them. But what lessons do you most\nfrequently have trouble with, Charley?\u201d\n\n\u201cOh! this arithmetic, mother, it is the only thing that troubles me.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will write on your book, two mottos which I wish you to look at,\nwhenever you are fretted, or discouraged by difficulties. The first\nis:--\u2018Every boy may be a hero.\u2019 And that you may remember what sort of\nheroism is to be sought, I will add this verse: \u2018_He that ruleth his\nspirit, is greater than he that taketh a city_.\u2019\u201d","title":"Every-day heroism","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":901}