Precept & Practice – JANUARY 31 – What is Duty?

What is duty?   With regard to ourselves it is to be independent of the senses, and with regard to others it is to be untiring in giving help and support;  help to live well, to do well, to will well, to wish well;  help by agreement and by opposition, by giving and by withholding, by firmness and by compliance, by praise and by blame, by silence and by words, by what is pleasant and by what is painful.

Dwellers on the same earth, travellers of the same hour, and companions along the same road, we ought to help one another;  and when we reach the resting-place we shall have first to render an account of what each has done for the happiness of the rest – for joy or for goodness. 

Joubert

At the end of life we shall not be asked how much pleasure we had in it, but how much service we gave in it;  not how full it was of success, but how full it was of sacrifice;  not how happy we were, but how helpful we were;  not how ambition was gratified, but how love was served.

Reverend Hugh Black.

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW