Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1904-12-09
the emperor SAID:
General, you are a brave mani"


The simple duty Is the nearest one.
A very common weakness hinders
many people from finding that which
is nearest to them interesting. They
sec but by their meanest side. The
distant, on the contrary, attracts and
enchants them Thus Is uselessly
spent a fabulous sum of good will.
They are impassioned for humanity,
for the public good, for distant miser-
les, walking across life with eyes fixed
on the marvellous objects which capti-
vate us far below at the confines of
the horizon, whAe they walk on the
passers' feet or elbow them without
noticing them.
1t is a singular inf1rmity which him
ders you from seeing those who are
there beside you. Many have read
much, made long voyages, but they
do not know their co-citizens, great or
small. They live, thanks to the COM
petition of a quantity of beings whose
destiny is Indifferent to them. Neither
those who teach them, instruct them,
govern them, nor those who serve
them, furnish them, feed them, have
ever won their attention That there
is any ingratitude or improvidence In
not knowing ones work people, ones
domestics, the few beings in fact who
have Indispensable social relations
with us, never enters their minds.
Others go still farther. For some wo-
men their husbands are unknown,
and this is reciprocal. There are pa
rents who do not know their own chill.
dren. Their development, their
thoughts, the dangers they may run,
the hopes they may nourish are for
them closed book. Many children do
not know their parents and have
never suspected their pains, their
struggles, nor penetrated their inten-
lions. And, do not speak Of the dis
united families, those sad homes
waere all relations are falsified, but of
honest families composed of good peo-
pie. These persons only are greatly
absorbed Each one has his interest
elsewhere which takes all his time
The distant duty, strongly attractive,
l do not deny, claims them entirely
and they are unconscious of the near
er duty. fear that they lose their
pains. The base of operation of each
is the field of his immediate duty.
Neglect that base and all the distant
things you undertake will be jeopar-
died. Belong, therefore, first to your
own county, your own city, your own
house, your church, your workshop,
and If it can be. leave there to go else
where. That is the simple and ma
err TO fob A g.,
nish himself at great cost with very
bad reasons to have come to follow
the inverse walk. In any case, the
result of 80 strange q confusion of
duties Is that many are mingled with
quantity Of things save those that
one has the right to expect of them.
Each occupies himself with other
things than those which belong to
him, and, absent from his post, he
does not know his trade. 1t would
be, though, SO very simple If every
one attended to his own business only.
Another form OF simple duty. When
an injury has been caused who should
repair It? The one who caused it.
That is just, but it is only a theory.
And the consequence Of that theory
would be that We must allow the evil
to exist until the malefactors have
been found and made to repair the
injury. But II we do not find them?
Or, If they cannot or will not repair
the injury?
1t rains on your head through a
broken tile, or the wind penetrates
your dwelling through broken pane.
Will you wait to seek after the roofer
and the glazier until you have had
the breaker of the tile or window ar
rested? You would find that absurd,
would you not? 1t is, however, a very
ordinary practice. Children indig-
nantly cry, Il did not throw that OBJ
ject down, and shall not pick it up"
And the greater part of men reason in
the same way. That is logical. But
that is not the sort of logic that turns
the world.
That which we should know, to the
contrary, and which life repeats daily,
is that the damage caused by some is
repaired by others Some destroy,
others build; some soil, others clean;
some stir up strife, others console;
some live in iniquity, while others
die for justice. And 1t is in the ac-
complishment of this dolorous law
that safety lies. 1t is logic also, but
of that logic of fact which causes that
of theories to grow pale. The con-
clusion is not a doubtful one. A man
Of simple heart draws his conclusion
thus: Given the evil, the great thing
is to repair 1t and to begin at once.
So much the better II the Indicators
will contribute to this reparation, but
experience counsels us not to count
too much upon their cooperation.
But, however simple duty is, one
must still have the strength to ac-
complish 1t. This strength, in what
does 1t consist. and where is it to be
found? One could never weary of
talking about it. Duty for man is
an enemy and an importunate one so