when we talk to children on a subject that annoys them, they call our attention to some pigeon on the roof, giving food to its little one, or some coachman down in the street who is abusing his horse. sometimes they even maliciously propose one of those alarming questions that put the minds of parents on the rack; all this to divert attention from the distressing topic. i fear that in the face of duty we are big children, and, when that is the theme, seek subterfuges to distract us.
the first sophism consists in asking ourselves if there is such a thing as duty in the abstract, or if this word does not cover one of the numerous illusions of our forefathers. for duty, in truth, supposes liberty, and the question of liberty leads us into metaphysics. how can we talk of liberty so long as this grave problem of free-will is not solved? theoretically there is no objection to this; and if [53]life were a theory, and we were here to work out a complete system of the universe, it would be absurd to concern ourselves with duty until we had clarified the subject of liberty, determined its conditions, fixed its limits.
but life is not a theory. in this question of practical morality, as in the others, life has preceded hypothesis, and there is no room to believe that she ever yields it place. this liberty—relative, i admit, like everything we are acquainted with, for that matter—this duty whose existence we question, is none the less the basis of all the judgments we pass upon ourselves and our fellow-men. we hold each other to a certain extent responsible for our deeds and exploits.
the most ardent theorist, once outside of his theory, scruples not a whit to approve or disapprove the acts of others, to take measures against his enemies, to appeal to the generosity and justice of those he would dissuade from an unworthy step. one can no more rid himself of the notion of moral obligation than of that of time or space; and as surely as we must resign ourselves to walking before we know how to define this space through which we move and this time that measures our movements, [54]so surely must we submit to moral obligation before having put our finger on its deep-hidden roots. moral law dominates man, whether he respects or defies it. see how it is in every-day life: each one is ready to cast his stone at him who neglects a plain duty, even if he allege that he has not yet arrived at philosophic certitude. everybody will say to him, and with excellent reason: "sir, we are men before everything. first play your part, do your duty as citizen, father, son; after that you shall return to the course of your meditations."
however, let us be well understood. we should not wish to turn anyone away from scrupulous research into the foundations of morality. no thought which leads men to concern themselves once more with these grave questions, could be useless or indifferent. we simply challenge the thinker to find a way to wait till he has unearthed these foundations, before he does an act of humanity, of honesty or dishonesty, of valor or cowardice. and most of all do we wish to formulate a reply for all the insincere who have never tried to philosophize, and for ourselves when we would offer our state of philosophic doubt in justification of our practical omissions. from the simple fact that we [55]are men, before all theorizing, positive, or negative, about duty, we have the peremptory law to conduct ourselves like men. there is no getting out of it.
but he little knows the resources of the human heart, who counts on the effect of such a reply. it matters not that it is itself unanswerable; it cannot keep other questions from arising. the sum of our pretexts for evading duty is equal to the sum of the sands of the sea or the stars of heaven.
we take refuge, then, behind duty that is obscure, difficult, contradictory. and these are certainly words to call up painful memories. to be a man of duty and to question one's route, grope in the dark, feel one's self torn between the contrary solicitations of conflicting calls, or again, to face a duty gigantic, overwhelming, beyond our strength—what is harder! and such things happen. we would neither deny nor contest the tragedy in certain situations or the anguish of certain lives. and yet, duty rarely has to make itself plain across such conflicting circumstances, or to be struck out from the tortured mind like lightning from a storm-cloud. such formidable shocks are exceptional. well for us if we stand staunch when they come! but if no one is astonished that oaks are uprooted by the [56]whirlwind, that a wayfarer stumbles at night on an unknown road, or that a soldier caught between two fires is vanquished, no more should he condemn without appeal those who have been worsted in almost superhuman moral conflicts. to succumb under the force of numbers or obstacles has never been counted a disgrace.
so my weapons are at the service of those who intrench themselves behind the impregnable rampart of duty ill-defined, complicated or contradictory. but it is not that which occupies me to-day; it is of plain, i had almost said easy duty, that i wish to speak.
we have yearly three or four high feast days, and many ordinary ones: there are likewise some very great and dark combats to wage, but beside these is the multitude of plain and simple duties. now, while in the great encounters our equipment is generally adequate, it is precisely in the little emergencies that we are found wanting. without fear of being misled by a paradoxical form of thought, i affirm, then, that the essential thing is to fulfil our simple duties and exercise elementary justice. in general, those [57]who lose their souls do so not because they fail to rise to difficult duty, but because they neglect to perform that which is simple. let us illustrate this truth.
he who tries to penetrate into the humble underworld of society is not slow to discover great misery, physical and moral. and the closer he looks, the greater number of unfortunates does he discover, till in the end this assembly of the wretched appears to him like a great black world, in whose presence the individual and his means of relief are reduced to helplessness. it is true that he feels impelled to run to the succor of these unfortunates, but at the same time he asks himself, "what is the use?" the case is certainly heartrending. some, in despair, end by doing nothing. they lack neither pity nor good intention, but these bear no fruit. they are wrong. often a man has not the means to do good on a large scale, but that is not a reason for failing to do it at all. so many people absolve themselves from any action, on the ground that there is too much to do! they should be recalled to simple duty, and this duty in the case of which we speak is that each one, according to his resources, leisure and capacity, should create relations for himself among the world's disinherited. [58]there are people who by the exercise of a little good-will have succeeded in enrolling themselves among the followers of ministers, and have ingratiated themselves with princes. why should you not succeed in forming relations with the poor, and in making acquaintances among the workers who lack somewhat the necessities of life? when a few families are known, with their histories, their antecedents and their difficulties, you may be of the greatest use to them by acting the part of a brother, with the moral and material aid that is yours to give. it is true, you will have attacked only one little corner, but you will have done what you could, and perhaps have led another on to follow you. instead of stopping at the knowledge that much wretchedness, hatred, disunion and vice exist in society, you will have introduced a little good among these evils. and by however slow degrees such kindness as yours is emulated, the good will sensibly increase and the evil diminish. even were you to remain alone in this undertaking, you would have the assurance that in fulfilling the duty, plain as a child's, which offered itself, you were doing the only reasonable thing. if you have felt it so, you have found out one of the secrets of right living.
[59]in its dreams, man's ambition embraces vast limits, but it is rarely given us to achieve great things, and even then, a quick and sure success always rests on a groundwork of patient preparation. fidelity in small things is at the base of every great achievement. we too often forget this, and yet no truth needs more to be kept in mind, particularly in the troubled eras of history and in the crises of individual life. in shipwreck a splintered beam, an oar, any scrap of wreckage, saves us. on the tumbling waves of life, when everything seems shattered to fragments, let us not forget that a single one of these poor bits may become our plank of safety. to despise the remnants is demoralization.
you are a ruined man, or you are stricken by a great bereavement, or again, you see the fruit of toilsome years perish before your eyes. you cannot rebuild your fortune, raise the dead, recover your lost toil, and in the face of the inevitable, your arms drop. then you neglect to care for your person, to keep your house, to guide your children. all this is pardonable, and how easy to understand! but it is exceedingly dangerous. to fold one's hands and let things take their course, is to transform one evil into worse. you who think that you [60]have nothing left to lose, will by that very thought lose what you have. gather up the fragments that remain to you, and keep them with scrupulous care. in good time this little that is yours will be your consolation. the effort made will come to your relief, as the effort missed will turn against you. if nothing but a branch is left for you to cling to, cling to that branch; and if you stand alone in defense of a losing cause, do not throw down your arms to join the rout. after the deluge a few survivors repeopled the earth. the future sometimes rests in a single life as truly as life sometimes hangs by a thread. for strength, go to history and nature. from the long travail of both you will learn that failure and fortune alike may come from the slightest cause, that it is not wise to neglect detail, and, above all, that we must know how to wait and to begin again.
in speaking of simple duty i cannot help thinking of military life, and the examples it offers to combatants in this great struggle. he would little understand his soldier's duty who, the army once beaten, should cease to brush his garments, polish his rifle, and observe discipline. "but what would be the use?" perhaps you ask. are there not [61]various fashions of being vanquished? is it an indifferent matter to add to defeat, discouragement, disorder, and demoralization? no, it should never be forgotten that the least display of energy in these terrible moments is a sign of life and hope. at once everybody feels that all is not lost.
during the disastrous retreat of 1813-1814, in the heart of the winter, when it had become almost impossible to present any sort of appearance, a general, i know not who, one morning presented himself to napoleon, in full dress and freshly shaven. seeing him thus, in the midst of the general demoralization, as elaborately attired as if for parade, the emperor said: my general, you are a brave man!
again, the plain duty is the near duty. a very common weakness keeps many people from finding what is near them interesting; they see that only on its paltry side. the distant, on the contrary, draws and fascinates them. in this way a fabulous amount of good-will is wasted. people burn with ardor for humanity, for the public good, for righting distant wrongs; they walk through life, their eyes fixed on marvelous sights along the horizon, treading meanwhile on the feet [62]of passers-by, or jostling them without being aware of their existence.
strange infirmity, that keeps us from seeing our fellows at our very doors! people widely read and far-travelled are often not acquainted with their fellow-citizens, great or small. their lives depend upon the co?peration of a multitude of beings whose lot remains to them quite indifferent. not those to whom they owe their knowledge and culture, not their rulers, nor those who serve them and supply their needs, have ever attracted their attention. that there is ingratitude or improvidence in not knowing one's workmen, one's servants, all those in short with whom one has indispensable social relations—this has never come into their minds. others go much farther. to certain wives, their husbands are strangers, and conversely. there are parents who do not know their children: their development, their thoughts, the dangers they run, the hopes they cherish, are to them a closed book. many children do not know their parents, have no suspicion of their difficulties and struggles, no conception of their aims. and i am not speaking of those piteously disordered homes where all the relations are false, but of honorable families. only, [63]all these people are greatly preoccupied: each has his outside interest that fills all his time. the distant duty—very attractive, i don't deny—claims them entirely, and they are not conscious of the duty near at hand. i fear they will have their trouble for their pains. each person's base of operations is the field of his immediate duty. neglect this field, and all you undertake at a distance is compromised. first, then, be of your own country, your own city, your own home, your own church, your own work-shop; then, if you can, set out from this to go beyond it. that is the plain and natural order, and a man must fortify himself with very bad reasons to arrive at reversing it. at all events, the result of so strange a confusion of duties is that many people employ their time in all sorts of affairs except those in which we have a right to demand it. each is occupied with something else than what concerns him, is absent from his post, ignores his trade. this is what complicates life. and it would be so simple for each one to be about his own matter.
another [64]form of simple duty. when damage is done, who should repair it? he who did it. this is just, but it is only theory, and the consequence of following the theory would be the evil in force until the malefactors were found and had offset it. but suppose they are not found? or suppose they can not or will not make amends?
the rain falls on your head through a hole in the roof, or the wind blows in at a broken window. will you wait to find the man who caused the mischief? you would certainly think that absurd. and yet such is often the practice. children indignantly protest, "i didn't put it there, and i shall not take it away!" and most men reason after the same fashion. it is logic. but it is not the kind of logic that makes the world move forward.
on the contrary, what we must learn, and what life repeats to us daily, is that the injury done by one must be repaired by another. one tears down, another builds up; one defaces, another restores; one stirs up quarrels, another appeases them; one makes tears to flow, another wipes them away; one lives for evil-doing, another dies for the right. and in the workings of this grievous law lies salvation. [65]this also is logic, but a logic of facts which makes the logic of theories pale. the conclusion of the matter is not doubtful; a single-hearted man draws it thus: given the evil, the great thing is to make it good, and to set about it on the spot; well indeed if messrs. the malefactors will contribute to the reparation; but experience warns us not to count too much on their aid.
but however simple duty may be, there is still need of strength to do it. in what does this strength consist, or where is it found? one could scarcely tire of asking. duty is for man an enemy and an intruder, so long as it appears as an appeal from without. when it comes in through the door, he leaves by the window; when it blocks up the windows, he escapes by the roof. the more plainly we see it coming, the more surely we flee. it is like those police, representatives of public order and official justice, whom an adroit thief succeeds in evading. alas! the officer, though he finally collar the thief, can only conduct him to the station, not along the right road. before man is able to accomplish his duty, he must fall into the hands of another power than that which says, [66]"do this, do that; shun this, shun that, or else beware!"
this is an interior power; it is love. when a man hates his work, or goes about it with indifference, all the forces of earth cannot make him follow it with enthusiasm. but he who loves his office moves of himself; not only is it needless to compel him, but it would be impossible to turn him aside. and this is true of everybody. the great thing is to have felt the sanctity and immortal beauty in our obscure destiny; to have been led by a series of experiences to love this life for its griefs and its hopes, to love men for their weakness and their greatness, and to belong to humanity through the heart, the intelligence and the soul. then an unknown power takes possession of us, as the wind of the sails of a ship, and bears us toward pity and justice. and yielding to its irresistible impulse, we say: i cannot help it, something is there stronger than i. in so saying, the men of all times and places have designated a power that is above humanity, but which may dwell in men's hearts. and everything truly lofty within us appears to us as a manifestation of this mystery beyond. noble feelings, like great thoughts and deeds, are things of inspiration. when the tree [67]buds and bears fruit, it is because it draws vital forces from the soil, and receives light and warmth from the sun. if a man, in his humble sphere, in the midst of the ignorance and faults that are his inevitably, consecrates himself sincerely to his task, it is because he is in contact with the eternal source of goodness. this central force manifests itself under a thousand forms. sometimes it is indomitable energy; sometimes winning tenderness; sometimes the militant spirit that grasps and uproots the evil; sometimes maternal solicitude, gathering to its arms from the wayside where it was perishing, some bruised and forgotten life; sometimes the humble patience of long research. all that it touches bears its seal, and the men it inspires know that through it we live and have our being. to serve it is their pleasure and reward. they are satisfied to be its instruments, and they no longer look at the outward glory of their office, well knowing that nothing is great, nothing small, but that our life and our deeds are only of worth because of the spirit which breathes through them.
