"But when we trace him to his home, we are confounded at the reflection,
that the same Spartan heroism, to which he sacrificed himself at
Thermopylæ, would have led him to tear his own child, if it had happened
to be a sickly babe,--the very object for which all that is kind and
good in man rises up to plead,--from the bosom of his mother, and carry
it out to be eaten by the wolves of Taygetus.

"We feel a glow of admiration at the heroism displayed at Marathon by
the ten thousand champions of invaded Greece; but we can not forget that
the tenth part of the number were slaves, unchained from the workshops
and doorposts of their masters, to go and fight the battles of freedom.

"I do not mean that these examples are to destroy the interest with
which we read the history of ancient times; they possibly increase that
interest by the very contrast they exhibit. But they warn us, if we need
the warning, to seek our great practical lessons of patriotism at home;
out of the exploits and sacrifices of which our own country is the
theater; out of the characters of our own fathers.

"Them we know,--the high-souled, natural, unaffected, the citizen
heroes. We know what happy firesides they left for the cheerless camp.
We know with what pacific habits they dared the perils of the field.
There is no mystery, no romance, no madness, under the name of chivalry
about them. It is all resolute, manly resistance for conscience and
liberty's sake not merely of an overwhelming power, but of all the force
of long-rooted habits and native love of order and peace.

"Above all, their blood calls to us from the soil which we tread; it
beats in our veins; it cries to us not merely in the thrilling words of