Page:Sir Walter Raleigh by Thoreau, Henry David,.djvu/115

 scenery. Let us not think that Alexander will conquer Asia the first time we are introduced to him, though smaller men may be in haste to re-enact their exploits then.

The presence of heroic souls enhances the beauty and ampleness of Nature herself. Where they walk, as Vergil says of the abodes of the blessed,—

But, alas! What is Truth? That which we know not. What is Beauty? That which we see not. What is Heroism? That which we are not. It is in vain to hang out flags on a day of rejoicing,—fresh bunting, bright and whole; better the soiled and torn remnant which has been borne in the wars.

We have considered a fair specimen of an Englishman in the sixteenth century; but it