The sentry then looked more closely at the Emperor, not quite reassured, but evidently recognized his Majesty's features, as he presented arms and allowed him to pass.
The distinction of the sentry lay in
the fact that, under every circumstance,
he was faithful to his duty.
(841)
DUTY IN DEATH
At Gettysburg a soldier in an ambulance
heard the sound of battle. He arose to go.
"Where are you going?" asked a comrade
in a tone of remonstrance. "To the front,"
said the wounded man. "What, in your condition!"
"If I am to die," he said, "I would
rather die on the battle-field than in an ambulance."
(Text.)
(842)
DUTY MORE THAN GLORY
The citizen on great occasions knows and
obeys the voice of his country as he knows
and obeys an individual voice, whether it appeal
to a base or ignoble, or to a generous
or noble passion. "Sons of France, awake
to glory," told the French youth what was
the dominant passion in the bosom of
France, and it awoke a corresponding sentiment
in his own. Under its spell he marched
through Europe and overthrew her kingdoms
and empires, and felt in Egypt that
forty centuries were looking down on him
from the pyramids. But, at last, one June
morning in Trafalgar Bay there was another
utterance, more quiet in its tone, but speaking
also with a personal and individual
voice: "England expects every man to do
his duty." At the sight of Nelson's immortal
signal, duty-loving England and glory-loving
France met as they have met on many an
historic battle-field before and since, and the
lover of duty proved the stronger. The
England that expected every man to do his
duty was as real a being to the humblest
sailor in Nelson's fleet as the mother that
bore him.—George Frisbie Hoar.
(843)
Duty Plus a Little More—See Overplus of Duty.
DUTY, SENSE OF
Calif Omar, with his venerable teacher,
Abou-Zeid, walked forth in the darkness of
the night, far from his palace gate, where he
saw a feeble fire burning. He sought it and
found a poor woman trying to bring[*] a caldron
to the boiling-point while two wretched
children clung to her, piteously moaning.
"Peace unto thee, O woman! What dost
thou here alone in the night and the cold?"
said the calif. "I am trying to make this
water boil that my children may drink, who
perish of hunger and cold; but for the
misery we have to bear, Allah will surely
one day ask reckoning of Omar, the calif."
"But," said the disguised calif, "dost thou
think, O woman, that Omar can know of
thy wretchedness?" She answered: "Wherefore,
then, is Omar, the calif, if he be unaware
of the misery of his people and of
each one of his subjects?" The calif was
silent. "Let us go hence," he said to Abou-Zeid.
He hastened to the storehouses of his
kitchen, and drew forth a sack of flour and a
jar of sheep's fat. "O Abou-Zeid, help thou
me to charge these on my back," said the
calif. "Not so," replied the attendant;
"suffer that I carry them on my back, O
Commander of the Faithful." Omar said
calmly: "Wilt thou also, O Abou-Zeid, bear
the weight of my sins on the day of resurrection?"
And Abou-Zeid was obliged to
lay the jar of fat and the sack of flour on
the back of the calif, who hastened to the
woman by the fire, and with his own hands
did put the flour and the fat into the caldron
over the fire, which fire he quickened with
his breath, and the smoke whereof filled his
beard. When the food was prepared, with
his own breath did he cool it that the children
might eat. Then he left the sack and
the jar and went his way saying: "O Abou-Zeid,
the light from the fire that I have beheld
to-day has enlightened me also."—James
T. White, "Character Lessons."
(844)
See Faithfulness.
Dying Like Ladies—See Pride.
DYNASTIC NAMES
Most royal families have a given name they
employ as a sort of distinctive dynastic hallmark.
George and Frederick are distinctively
Hanoverian, as Edward is distinctively English.
The late king selected Edward rather
than Albert from motives at once filial and
politic. He desired that his father should
stand alone in his glory as Albert in English
history, and Edward was associated with
old and stately traditions of the Plantagenets
and Tudors. Similarly the French Bourbons
usually have a Louis or a Charles among
their string of names, and the Bonapartes
never forget Napoleon at the baptismal font.
The most striking instance of reverence for
a dynastic name is found in the princely
family of Reuss, in Germany. There are
