'BmnUA. in t̂ B mterasts nt the Stttd^nis,

"Who is tlie hero? The world replies: " H e who overcomes in battle and subdues nations,—who brings home spoils gained by immense destruction of liuman life. A conqueror who leaves behind nothing but ruin wlieresoe'er he roves." Such are the lauded heroes of the world. He who jjoes forth to battle tilled with an ardent desire of victory for thesake of human applause,—who unrelentingly spares neitlier age nor sex, but leaves everywhere devastation and ruin that he may return laden with spoils,—liim docs tlie world crow^n'with immortal laurels." Sesostris, whose ambition aimed at noththing less than the conquest of the whole world,— who in the short sp'ice of nine years rendered tributary nearly all the nations of the globe, was loaded with glorious crowns and titles, and honored with the name of hero. "When we consider the motives which prompted the conquering Alexander, though no prince ever surpasstd or even equalled him in rapidity of conquest and brilliancy of exploits, we cannot refrain from exclaiming that the epithet " Great" is upon him undeservedly bestowed, unless greatness consists in ravaging the earth and reducing an iutinite number of persons to slavery and utter distress. Yet notwithstanding the multitude of excesses into which his ambition led him, he has been flattered with all the honors due a hero. Pride and ambition are ever, according to the world, the essential qualities of a hero. Thougli not u:iways attended by success, the warrior who possess in a high degree these chanicterislics is unhesitatingly pronouiiced a heroic man. "What won for the world-reuowued Annibal such immortal fame? Not always did he receive the victor's crown,—^yet his ambition and priJe, indomitable courage and determination of reveiige, made the mightiest nations tremble at the s.iund of his name. "With Annibal as a leader, none feared to brave the fiercest enemy. But this greate-t hero of the age in which he lived—who displayed almost superhuman courage on the tield of battle—had not suthcient moral courage to survive a defeat, but fell by his own hand, a victim to despair. Such was the close of the careir of one whom the world has ever since tsteeineJ as one of her greatest heroes.