, my life is of no
purchase in an insurance office, it is the less account to husband it,
and the business of husbanding a life is dreary and demoralising: Fifth
Reason.

I state these in no order, but as they occur to me. And I shall do the
like with the objections.

First Objection: It will do no good; you have seen Gordon die, and
nobody minded; nobody will mind if you die. This is plainly of the
devil. Second Objection: You will not even be murdered, the climate will
miserably kill you, you will strangle out in a rotten damp heat, in
congestion, etc. Well, what then? It changes nothing: the purpose is to
brave crime; let me brave it, for such time and to such an extent as God
allows. Third Objection: The Curtin women are probably highly
uninteresting females. I haven't a doubt of it. But the Government
cannot, men will not, protect them. If I am the only one to see this
public duty, it is to the public and the Right I should perform it--not
to Mesdames Curtin. Fourth Objection: I am married. "I have married a
wife!" I seem to have heard it before. It smells ancient! what was the
context? Fifth Objection: My wife has had a mean life (1), loves me (2),
could not bear to lose me (3). (1) I admit: I am sorry. (2) But what
does she love me for? and (3) she must lose me soon or late. And after
all, because we run this risk, it does not follow we should fail. Sixth
Objection: My wife wouldn't like it. No, she wouldn't. Who would? But
the Curtins don't like it. And all those who are to suffer if this goes
on, won't like it. And if there is a great wrong, somebody must suffer.
Seventh Objection: I won't like it. No, I will not; I have thought it
through, and I will not. But what of that? And both she and I may like
it more than we suppose. We shall lose friends, all comforts, all
society: so has everybody who has ever done anything; but we shall have
some excitement, and that's a fine thing; and we shall be trying to do
the right, and that's not to be despised. Eighth Objection: I am an
author with my work before me. See Second Reason. Ninth Objection: But
am I not taken with the hope of excitement? I was at first. I am not
much now. I see what a dreary, friendless, miserable, God-forgotten
business it will be. And anyway, is not excitement the proper reward of
doing anything both right and a little dangerous? Tenth Objection: But
am I not taken with a notion of glory? I dare say I am. Yet I see quite
clearly how all point