DUTIFUL TO ALL.
Society can only exist under certain regulations which pure-minded and noble legislators have enacted, and which everyone pronounces right. It therefore devolves upon every boy to do his part in sustaining these laws and to have a care for those who may have no tie binding them to us except the common tie of humanity. His motto should be, “Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you,” desiring in life and asking in death no epitaph greater than that of the Earl of Shaftesbury, who, being presented with a donkey by the coster-mongers of London said, “I ask nothing beyond this, that with patience as great and a resignation as unmurmuring as that of this donkey I may do my duty.”
What a phrase! “My duty.” Not my brother’s duty, or my chum’s, but my duty. My duty to God, to parents, to others and to myself. When once the son of the Czar of Russia was visiting America some years ago as a subordinate officer of the ships of the Russian fleet, a citizen of Philadelphia, who was entertaining the admiral in command, asked him as to the position of the Grand Duke on board. “How is he addressed?” was asked. “Always as ‘Lieutenant,’” was the reply. “Does he do regular duty as an officer, on watch in his turn?” “Certainly. There is only one difference between him and the other officers. He is always more faithful to duty than anyone else.”
What a tribute! What was said of this royal son, may be said of every boy. “Let us be found doing our duty, if this be the day of judgment,” said Colonel Davenport in the legislative council of 1780 at Hartford. An eclipse of the sun so darkened the room and surrounding country that many thought it was the day of God’s wrath. Live such a life that no matter when the judgment comes, you may be found doing your duty, thus meriting the eulogy conferred upon Colonel Hutchinson: “He never professed the thing he intended not, nor promised that he believed out of his power, nor failed in the performance of anything that was in his power to fulfill.” In all circumstances of life and dealings with others
“Do noble things, not dream them all day long,
And so make life, death, and that vast forever,
One grand sweet song.”
CHAPTER XII
Be Honest
INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTER XII
By Francis E. Warren