Page:The Sunday Eight O'Clock (1916).pdf/117

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Virtue and Reward

A GOOD deal of the literature for children which I have read during the last twenty years promulgates the idea that virtue is entitled to and gets its immediate, adequate, and usually its pecuniary reward, and that evil doers live a dreary and unhappy life and come to a horrible end. If one is honest or unselfish or truthful or does his duty under temptation, there is always the generous employer to send one on an unexpected vacation or the long-lost uncle to return with gold watches and filled purses for trips to Europe.

The college student it seems to me must often have been brought up on this sort of reading matter, for if he does not crib in examination, even though his facts are drawn from his imagination, he is likely to feel that this virtue should be rewarded by