Arthur Hamilton, and His Dog
CHAPTER I. LEAVING HOME. One pleasant October evening, Arthur Hamilton was at play in front of the small, brown cottage in which he lived. He and his brother James, were having a great frolic with a large spotted dog, who was performing a great variety of antics, such as only well-educated dogs understand. But Rover had been carefully initiated into the mysteries of making a bow while standing on his hind legs, tossing pieces of bread off his nose, putting up his fore-paws with a most imploring look, and piteous whine, which the boys called "begging for money," and when a chip had been given him, he uttered a most energetic bow-wow-wow, which they regarded as equivalent to "thank you, sir," and walked off. While they were thus amusing themselves, their mother was sitting on the rude piazza which ran along the front of the cottage, now looking at the merry children, and then thoughtfully gazing at the long shadows which were stretching across the road. Mrs. Hamilton was a woman of wonderful strength, and energy, both of body and mind; and she had been sustained
nothing which by the nature of man might seduce him to that for
which his conscience may hereafter torment him, that is, it is my duty
not to give him occasion of stumbling. But there are no definite
limits within which this care for the moral satisfaction of others
must be kept; therefore it involves only an indeterminate obligation.
IX. What is a Duty of Virtue?
{INTRODUCTION ^paragraph 85}
Virtue is the strength of the man's maxim in his obedience to
duty. All strength is known only by the obstacles that it can
overcome; and in the case of virtue the obstacles are the natural
inclinations which may come into conflict with the moral purpose;
and as it is the man who himself puts these obstacles in the way of
his maxims, hence virtue is not merely a self-constraint (for that
might be an effort of one inclination to constrain another), but is
also a constraint according to a principle of inward freedom, and
therefore by the mere idea of duty, according to its formal law.
CHAPTER I. LEAVING HOME. One pleasant October evening, Arthur Hamilton was at play in front of the small, brown cottage in which he lived. He and his brother James, were having a great frolic with a large spotted dog, who was performing a great variety of antics, such as only well-educated dogs understand. But Rover had been carefully initiated into the mysteries of making a bow while standing on his hind legs, tossing pieces of bread off his nose, putting up his fore-paws with a most imploring look, and piteous whine, which the boys called "begging for money," and when a chip had been given him, he uttered a most energetic bow-wow-wow, which they regarded as equivalent to "thank you, sir," and walked off. While they were thus amusing themselves, their mother was sitting on the rude piazza which ran along the front of the cottage, now looking at the merry children, and then thoughtfully gazing at the long shadows which were stretching across the road. Mrs. Hamilton was a woman of wonderful strength, and energy, both of body and mind; and she had been sustained