The Hero of Herat

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Excerpt from The Hero of Herat: A Frontier Biography in Romantic FormFor closer acquaintance with the man reveals a character peculiarly well worth considering in detail by a generation of English men and women who tend, more and more, to set expedience above principle, and to rate personal success - however ephemeral, however attained as a man's sole claim to distinction.In the lucrative qualities, admired of a commercial age, Eldred Pottinger was woefully lacking. He had-neither moral adaptability nor personal push. None the less did he achieve his hour of glory, though it must he confessed he stumbled upon it almost in his own despite, and certainly failed to make capital of it from a worldly point of view. Fool or idealist - which you will: it all hinges on the point Of view. Yet, fool or no, England needs Pottingers, not place-seekers, though she only admits that need in the hour of national trouble, and, even so, appreciates them best at a distance or wherever her trouble is acute. In times of peace, when men worship the golden calf called Business, when their souls are dwarfed by its monetary standards, its mean and selfish expedients, Eng land frankly prefers the man of talent to the man of great character. His ready pliability, his keen eye to the main chance, and, above all, his tact in accepting, with out seeming to perceive, his senior's commercial view of life, make him infinitely simpler and pleasanter to deal with while England, confident in her long-suffering Star, justifies herself by the not unfounded reflection that when the crisis comes, there will be no lack of uncomfortable, irritating heroes to pick her chestnuts out of the fire.So it ever has been, so, no doubt, it ever will be, and of such was Eldred Pottinger, in all respects true to type, though in him the more effective heroism of the born fighter was infused and mellowed by the innate, self effacing heroism of the man. In truth, during his short eventful spell of Afghan service, his soldierly qualities seldom had full scope. Those years of sufiering and fortitude, culminating in misinterpretation and injustice, tended rather to strengthen the unquestioning religious faith, the large nobility of soul, which he shared with that galaxy of men - Nicholson, Outram, the Lawrences, to name but a few - who established British rule in the Punjab, and established also an ideal of British character that remains unshaken to this day. It is a significant feature of that same galaxy that none among them was ashamed to show forth his faith in God - whether to white men or brown - not only with his lips, but with his life. Far from faultless, and differing widely, with all the individual differences of strong natures, in this respect they were as one man - they feared God, but they feared nothing else in heaven or earth.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.