Heroes VS Scholars

Heroes and scholars represent the opposite extremes... The scholar struggles for the benefit of all humanity, sometimes to reduce physical effort, sometimes to reduce pain, and sometimes to postpone death, or at least render it more bearable. In contrast, the patriot sacrifices a rather substantial part of humanity for the sake of his own prestige. His statue is always erected on a pedestal of ruins and corpses... In contrast, all humanity crowns a scholar, love forms the pedestal of his stat...

 Shelley Sonnet on Ballooning

Bright ball of flame that thro the gloom of even Silently takes thine ethereal way And with surpassing glory dimmst each ray Twinkling amid the dark blue depth of Heaven; Unlike the Fire thou bearest, soon shalt thou Fade like a meteor in surrounding gloom, Whilst that, unquenchable, is doomed to glow A watch-light by the patriot’s lonely tomb, A ray of courage to the opprest and poor…