III.
 

iHEN the age of heroism is spoken of, how many invol-
^untarily go back into the dim past,—to the days of
N chivalry and knighthood, and all that sort of thing, set in
den light, as those days are, by the romancist and the
poet! And yet, I am not of those who believe that the race is retro¬
grading ; that it has seen its best days; that its heroes are under¬
ground ; that I can never hope for anything one-half so good as that
which some people choose to call " the good old times." I am not of
those, I say, who believe this of the race. I believe, on the contrary,
that to-day is a great deal better than yesterday, and that the crowning
of to-day will be surpassed by the achievements of to-morrow. This
is not orthodox, I know,—rather, I should say, it is far from being the
faith of many of that school, who will persist in overlooking the
real progress of the race, as well as those grand prophecies which
tell of a day when righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters
cover the channels of the great deep. I need not dwell upon this,
but I choose to say again that I believe, as Horace Greeley once
said, "progress is the law of the race"; after saying which there
comes in a good chance to say again, that the days of the old volun¬
teer system held as many real heroes as any day whose beams ever
baptized the earth,—yes, more of them, I firmly believe.

I believe in the great common tides of life around us. I believe
—know, in fact—that I have brushed against and continue to brush
against as great heroes on our sidewalks every day, as ever Homer