63. There are some who wait and question themselves, who ponder,
consider, and then at length decide. They too are right, for it
matters but little whether the duty fulfilled be result of instinct
or intellect. The gestures of instinct will often recall the
delicate, naive and vague, unexpected beauty that clings to the
child's least movement, and touches us deeply; but the gestures of
matured resolve have a beauty, too, of their own, more earnest and
statelier, stronger. It is given to very few hearts to be naively
perfect, nor should we go seek in them for the laws of duty. And
besides, there is many a sober-hued duty that instinct will fail to
perceive, that yet will be clearly espied by mature resolution,
bereft though this be of illusion; and man's moral value is
doubtless established by the number of duties he sees and sets forth
to accomplish.

It is well that the bulk of mankind should listen to the instinct
that prompts them to sacrifice self on the altar of duty, and that
without too close self-questioning; for long must the questioning be
ere consciousness will give forth the same answer as instinct. And
those who do thus close their eyes, and in all meekness follow their
instinct, are in truth following the light that is borne at their
head, though they know it not, see it not, by the best of their
ancestors. But still this is not the ideal; and he who gives up the
least thing of all for the sake of his brother, well knowing what it
is he gives up and wherefore he does it, stands higher by far in the
scale of morality than the other, who flings away life without
throwing one glance behind.

64. In this world there are thousands of weak, noble creatures who
fancy that sacrifice always must be the last word of duty; thousands