creation. The true soldier's one object and ambition is to do his duty, no matter what the cost. You have all heard the famous story of the burning of the Czar's palace at Moscow how in the general confusion the order to relieve the royal sentinels was not issued by the proper authority, and how the heroic fellows paced back and forth upon the blazing balustrades as if they were on parade, until the falling walls buried them from sight.

There was an example of fidelity to duty set before the world! It was an example not only to the soldier guarding his sacred trust, but to all men in all stations and conditions of life.

What seem to be little duties are as binding upon us as those which may gain for us greater glory and admiration. The regular army soldier is taught to be as faithful in the care of his horse and of his wardrobe as in the performance of his graver duties on the battlefield.

Now, can you tell me why the sense of the imperativeness of duty should be so especially prominent in the mind of the soldier? Why more so than in the minds of men in general?

Julia Taylor. It is no more so than in the minds of other faithful people.

Dr. Dix. Very true. Heroic fidelity to duty is by no means confined to those whose trade is war. There are cowards, traitors, and shirks in the army as well as elsewhere. From the earliest ages, however, the soldier has been a favorite proverb of devotion to duty, and an idea so general must have some foundation in truth.

Isabelle Anthony. One reason is, that bravery is so much admired, and cowardice so much despised.

Dr. Dix. That is doubtless a part of the explanation. But to be brave is not the soldier's only duty: his first and greatest obligation is to obey orders.

Thomas Dunn. I think the chief reason is, that

there is so much depending on his doing his duty faithfully. If he sleeps on his post, the safety of the whole army is endangered; if he is cowardly in battle, the victory is lost; if he is disobedient to orders, there can be no discipline, and without discipline an army is only a mob.

Dr. Dix. Yes; that is the explanation - necessity. Fidelity is indispensable to efficiency. An army composed of untrustworthy and disobedient soldiers would be like a watch—if such a thing is conceivable — in which the wheels should turn or not as they individually chose; or, to carry out my former comparison, like a universe in which the atoms should obey the laws of attraction and repulsion or not according to their sovereign pleasure. Such an army would be, as Dunn says, a mob: such a universe would be chaos.

Now, boys and girls, each one of us is like a soldier in an armywith this difference: however we might wish to do so, we can neither resign nor desert. We must ever remain parts of the great whole. Each of us is a little wheel in the great mechanism, and if we do not do our share of the turning, or if we turn in the wrong direction, we do so much to block the machinery, to disturb the general harmony that might prevail. Why should any of us feel the sense of imperative duty less strongly than the brave, true soldier? Why should man, the apex in the pyramid of being, be less obedient to the laws of his existence, less faithful to his duty, than the wheels of his watch, than the ant or the bee, than the minutest atom that helps to hold the universe together and keep it in harmonious motion ?

IV.

"CREDIT," AND OTHER "REWARDS OF MERIT."

Dr. Dix. During my eulogy on things and the lower animals, last week, for always fulfilling the ends for which they exist, it was objected that they deserve no "credit" for doing so, because they cannot do otherwise. Well, as I replied then, who does deserve credit for simply doing his duty?

Joseph Cracklin. When a man pays a debt, it is put to his "credit" on the ledger.

Dr. Dix [smiling]. That sounds like a very clever answer; but it is only a play upon words. Even things deserve credit in that sense of the word. The farmer

credits a field with the crop that he considers no more than his due for the labor and money he has expended upon it. When Cracklin made the remark that "things deserve no credit," he used the word in an entirely different sense, that of commendation for positive moral virtue. A man who merely pays his debts simply does n't do wrong. His act is like thousands of other acts, neither positive nor negative so far as their moral nature is concerned; whereas the man who not only pays, but gives from benevolent motives, is "credited" with an act of positive moral virtue.

Thomas Dunn. But did n't we decide, a fortnight ago, that kindness, charity, generosity were only debts that we owe our fellow-men?

Dr. Dix [laughing]. We seem to have stumbled upon one of those ethical subtleties that I was so anxious to avoid. It is not so subtle, however, as it seems. Words often have a very different force, according as

their application is high or low. We say, for instance, that this building is stationary. It is so only with reference to the earth on which it stands. Referred to the heavens, we know that it is in rapid motion. So that which may not be a debt in the business sense, may be a most binding debt in the moral sense. The payment of such moral debts has positive moral virtue, and is entitled to moral credit. Let us consider this moral credit, as distinguished from business credit.

It is a part of the natural and just reward of welldoing. The love of the approbation of our fellow-men is implanted in us by nature, and is entirely commendable, if properly regulated. There is no motion without a motor. The steam-engine will not move without steam, neither will man act without a motive. He labors for food and other necessaries and comforts of life. Without reward of some sort he will not act, and this is right. As I said, the approval of his fellowmen is one of these rewards. But suppose it is the only or chief motive for doing good. You have read of a class of men who give alms that they may be seen of men. You know what is said of them: "They have their reward." Do you not detect a subtle sarcasm in that laconic awarding of the prize of "credit"? Are they really entitled even to the poor reward they receive? If men knew their actual motive, would they receive it? No; in order that their credit may be justly earned, it must be only a secondary motive of action. And the same may be said of all other rewards which appeal to our selfish passions and desires. You may name some of the motives which impel men to do good and shun evil.

Isabelle Anthony. I think the most general and powerful motive is expressed in the old copy-book line, "Be virtuous and you will be happy."

Frank Williams. People are afraid they won't get to heaven if they are not good.

Dr. Dix. And what do you think of such motives, unmixed with others?

Isabelle Anthony. I think they are purely selfish. Dr. Dix. Do you think they are entitled to much of the credit we are speaking of?

Isabelle Anthony. No, sir.

Dr. Dix. Suppose no such rewards were offered, suppose if such a thing is conceivable · - that virtue did not gain the approval of our fellow-men or lead to happiness, what do you think the effect would be on general human character?

Jane Simpson. There would n't be much good done. Thomas Dunn. I do not think there would be any good at all.

Dr. Dix. So you think all good acts have at bottom some selfish motive?

Thomas Dunn. It seems to me that it must be so. Dr. Dix. Do you think the Good Samaritan was selfish?

He

Thomas Dunn. He might have been purely so. could n't help pitying the man he saw suffering. Pity is no more truly an act of the will, I suppose, than surprise, or fright, or any other sudden emotion. His pity caused him a kind of suffering, and he took the most direct and effectual way of relieving it.

Dr. Dix. And so he was entitled to no credit?

Thomas Dunn. I don't say that. I only say that his good act might have been purely selfish. If my head aches, I try to relieve it. I do the same when my heart aches.

Besides, he might have heard of its being "more blessed to give than to receive," and he might have been business-like enough to do that which would secure to himself the greater blessing.

Julia Taylor [indignantly]. I don't believe it possible for him to have had any such sordid thoughts. I don't believe the most remote thought of himself or of