When they shoot at you, they can only take your natural life; when they
sneer at you, they can wound your living heart, and men who are brave
enough, steadfast enough, steady in their principles enough, to go about
their duty with regard to their fellow-men, no matter whether there are
hisses or cheers, men who can do what Rudyard Kipling in one of his
poems wrote, "Meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two
impostors just the same," are men for a nation to be proud of. Morally
speaking, disaster and triumph are impostors. The cheers of the moment
are not what a man ought to think about, but the verdict of his
conscience and of the consciences of mankind.
When I look at you, I feel as if I also and we all were enlisted men.
Not enlisted in your particular branch of the service, but enlisted to
serve the country, no matter what may come, even though we may sacrifice
our lives in the arduous endeavor. We are expected to put the utmost
energy of every power that we have into the service of our fellow-men,
never sparing ourselves, not condescending to think of what is going to
happen to ourselves, but ready, if need be, to go to the utter length of
complete self-sacrifice.
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