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196
AUSTRALIA AND THE EMPIRE

and profound writer observes that the "three hundred " who, at the cost of certain death, held the pass of Thermopylæ "were all of them fathers with sons living."

"According to modern notions," adds Dr. Hearn, "a forlorn hope would naturally be composed of men who had not given hostages to fortune. Such, however, was not the light in which the matter presented itself to the Greek mind. The human plant had flowered, and the continuance of the house was secure. It was therefore of comparatively little moment what befell the man whose duty to his ancestors had been fulfilled."

After quoting this singularly suggestive passage, the old Pioneer points out to the Native Australian that his desire to push the old race into the grave is, after all, but a reversion to the usages of the antique world. "Unlike his mythic forefathers, however," he adds, "the 'Young Australian' is not at all inclined to the practice of burying his departed parent beneath the hearthstone and worshipping his spirit."

"We old Australians," continues the worthy Pioneer, "are 'foreigners'—trespassers on the land that we have given to our sons. Our intellects are