A MESSENGER
BY
Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews
The Berserker of the North, because he believed in the directing power of the gods, knew no fear. Death or life—it was meted out by a destiny that could not err. In song and story he has been one of the most attractive figures of the past; far more attractive in his savage virtues than the more sensuous heroes of Greece and Rome. In this story he lives again in the American boy who has his ancestor’s inexplicable uplift of spirit in the presence of danger and his implicit faith in “the God of battles and the beauty of holiness.” The ideal of Miles Morgan is such a man as Chinese Gordon, who, not only in youth but all through life, had eyes for “the vision splendid.”
The ethical value of “A Messenger” may be summed up in the words of the General: “There is nothing in Americanism to prevent either inspiration or heroism.”
A MESSENGER[24]