But Charles Napier and his brothers had the benefit of one outside teacher, the value of whose teaching to them it would not be easy to exaggerate; out of doors and indoors, on the river and the mountain, their father was their best school-master. From him Charles Napier learned a thousand lessons of truth and justice, of honour in arms, of simplicity in life, of steady purpose, of hatred for pomp and show and empty-headed pride, of pity for the poor, of sympathy with the oppressed, of fearless independence of character, which those who care to follow us through these pages will find growing in profusion along the pathway of his life, plants none of which ever withered from the moment they were planted in these youthful days, but many of which were only to blossom into full luxuriance in the autumn of existence. When full fifty years have passed by we shall find the lessons sown along the Liffey, and amid the Wicklow hills, bearing their rich harvest in distant scenes by the shores of mighty Eastern rivers and under the shadows of Himalayan mountains. It has been said that the house at Celbridge held large store of books, and it may be that in the library a copy of old Massinger was to be found, wherein, if the boys were not allowed promiscuously to read, they had read to them that wonderful picture of the real soldier which the dramatist drew so uselessly for the Cavaliers of his time, so terribly useful for their Roundhead enemies. If e'er my son Follow the war, tell him it is a school Where all the principles tending to honour Are taught, if truly follow'd; but for such As repair thither as a place in which They do presume they may with license practise Their lusts and riots, they shall never merit The noble name of soldiers. To dare boldly In a fair cause, and for their country's safety To run upon the cannon's mouth undaunted; To obey their leaders, and shun mutinies; To bear with patience the winter's cold And summer's scorching heat, and not to faint, When plenty of provision fails, with hunger, Are the essential parts make up a soldier-- Not swearing, dice, or drinking.