which is the only injustice whereof they, as yet, seem aware.

Ought we never to hesitate, then? and is our duty most faithfully done
when we ourselves are wholly unconscious that this thing that we do is
a duty? Is it most essential of all that we should attain a height
whence duty no longer is looked on as the choice of our noblest
feelings, but as the silent necessity of all the nature within us?

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 of
beautiful souls that know not what should be done, and seek only to
yield up their life, holding that to be virtue supreme. They are wrong;
supreme virtue consists in the knowledge of what should be done, in the
power to decide for ourselves whereto we should offer our life. The
duty e