One word more, and I have done. If I was allowed to give one special
piece of advice to a young officer, whether of the army or navy, I would
say--Respect scientific men; associate with them; learn from them; find
them to be, as you will usually, the most pleasant and instructive of
companions: but always respect them. Allow them chivalrously, you who
have an acknowledged rank, their yet unacknowledged rank; and treat them
as all the world will treat them, in a higher and truer state of
civilisation. They do not yet wear the Queen's uniform; they are not yet
accepted servants of the State; as they will be in some more perfectly
organised and civilised land: but they are soldiers nevertheless, and
good soldiers and chivalrous, fighting their nation's battle, often on
even less pay than you,--and with still less chance of promotion and of
fame, against most real and fatal enemies--against ignorance of the laws
of this planet, and all the miseries which that ignorance begets. Honour
them for their work; sympathise in it; give them a helping hand in it
whenever you have an opportunity--and what opportunities you have, I have
been trying to sketch for you to-night; and more, work at it yourselves
whenever and wherever you can. Show them that the spirit which animates
them--the hatred of ignorance and disorder, and of their bestial
consequences--animates you likewise; show them that the habit of mind
which they value in themselves--the habit of accurate observation and
careful judgment--is your habit likewise; show them that you value
science, not merely because it gives better weapons of destruction and of
defence, but because it helps you to become clear-headed, large-minded,
able to take a just and accurate view of any subject which comes before
you, and to cast away every old prejudice and every hasty judgment in the
face of truth and of duty: and it will be better for you and for them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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