He kept his eye on the goal and endured almost unspeakable
hardships in pressing forward toward this goal. Somehow and somewhere in
his life he had learned the meaning of responsibility and so felt that he
must not fail. The world came to know him as a hero because he was a hero
at heart and his heroic achievement had its origin in the training that
led him to feel a sense of responsibility.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
LOYALTY
When the boy overhears a companion put a slight upon the good name of his
mother, he does not deliberate but, like a flash, smites the mouth that
defames. He may deliberate afterward, for the mind then has a fact upon
which to work, but if he is a worthy son it is not till afterwards.
Spiritual impulses are as quick as powder and as direct as a shaft of
light. So quick are they that we are prone to disregard them in our
contemplation of their results. We see the boy strike and conclude, in a
superficial way, that his hand initiated the action, nor take pains to
trace this action back to the primal cause in the spiritual impulse. True,
both mind and body are called into action, but only as auxiliaries to
carry out the behests of the spirit. When the man utters an exclamation of
delight at sight of his country's flag in a foreign port, the sound that
we hear is but the conclusion or completion of the series of happenings.
It is not the initial happening at all. On the instant when his eyes
caught sight of the flag something took place inside the man's nature.
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