Music at Midnight
To do one’s duty is to peep into the mystery of life, and taste reward from another world.
1871
To do one’s duty is to peep into the mystery of life, and taste reward from another world.
1871
Samuel Smiles closed his book devoted to character with a reflection on doing one’s duty — meaning neither the bare minimum required by law, nor slavish obedience to authority, but the mysterious, often elusive task which God has entrusted to each one of us.
THERE is much in life that, while in this state, we can never comprehend. There is, indeed, a great deal of mystery in life — much that we see ‘as in a glass darkly.’ But though we may not apprehend the full meaning of the discipline of trial through which the best have to pass, we must have faith in the completeness of the design of which our little individual lives form a part.
We have each to do our duty in that sphere of life in which we have been placed. Duty alone is true; there is no true action but in its accomplishment. Duty is the end and aim of the highest life; the truest pleasure of all is that derived from the consciousness of its fulfilment. Of all others, it is the one that is most thoroughly satisfying, and the least accompanied by regret and disappointment. In the words of George Herbert, the consciousness of duty performed ‘gives us music at midnight.’*
George Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welshman with a brilliant career in politics, poetry and the University before him, who decided to become a country vicar.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why does Smiles enjoin his readers to have ‘faith’?
Because life’s meaning cannot be fully understood.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Seeking pleasure often brings regret. It often brings disappointment. Seeking one’s duty is different.