44
UNWRITTEN HISTORY.
every school events are happening the importance of which is never correctly estimated. It is easy to ascribe heroic qualities to individuals far removed from us by time or circumstances, but we are all apt to overlook the heroism, the heroes who come under our own observation. The heroic deeds of knights in the famous days of chivalry form the theme of many a beautiful ballad, but every-day life furnishes deeds equally heroic and praise-worthy in themselves.
"Oh, yes, they are all around us,
Oh, yes, they are all around us. And in every walk of life; Heroes the best, that stand the test In many an unmarked strife; Heroes of home, of shop, of farm, And at duty's call alone. Though unaware of honor's share And by noisy fame unknown."
And by noisy fame unknown."
History records many great and decisive battles in which the bravery and military genius of the commanders are mentioned, but how little note is made of the rank and file, the men whose faithful performance of duty makes victory possible. These are the unnamed heroes. They march often with no less lofty purpose and clear perception of the crisis than their leaders. They serve with the same heroism. They fight with the same bravery and fall as nobly. If you read of the battle of Lodi you will find no mention of that brave and fearless drummer-boy whose post through the long and eventful hours of that terrific struggle was one of the greatest danger, and who so steadily sounded the many charges upon the enemy as to attract, by his coolness and bravery, the attention of the great captain, who, in the presence of the whole army, rewarded him by promotion.
If we turn to workers in science we shall find that many of them never have received the credit due their labors and frequently have died comparatively unknown. They wrought for the good of all, but their names have only gone to swell the long list of the world's forgotten worthies.
Who shall say how much a chance word, a kind act, or friendly sympathy, has effected some great event? Who shall say how much the act of Madam Cotta, who took in Luther when a poor boy singing in the street, had to do with the Reformation? "There may have been many Folletts who never held a brief, many Keans who never acted but in barns, many Vandykes who never earned more than sixpence a day, many Goldsmiths who never were better than penny-a-liners, many Michels who never built their St. Peters, and, perhaps, a Shakespeare who held horses at the theatre door for pence as the Shakespeare we know of did, but who stopped there."
It is true that all small events and common-place deeds cannot be recorded in history. Historical composition seems from a kind of necessity to deal largely with the uppermost facts in human life, and so has been likened to a field book of conquerors. Its delineations, as generally drawn, have seemed only a kind of picture gallery of kings and princes. But in the future, let us hope, the more important part of hitherto unwritten history will fill a larger space in historical writing. We have to go to the rebukes of Sallust and the satires of Juvenal if we want to learn of the private pursuits and vices of the Roman people. So to find out the manners and social life of the Greeks we have to go to the theatres of Athens. What we need is a larger chapter of that unwritten history which will enable us to see among the ancients not only the consuls and generals, the comitia and the forum, but the whole of Roman life in all its details and social aspects. While with modern life we shall have given to us all that goes to make up the sum-total of our manifold activities, as well of noble deeds about the hearthstone as on the field of battle, as well of domestic and social life as of the outer and public