O.M. That no man has ever sacrificed himself in the common meaning of that phrase—which is, self-sacrifice for another _alone_. Men make daily sacrifices for others, but it is for their own sake _first_. The act must content their own spirit _first_. The other beneficiaries come second. Y.M. And the same with duty for duty’s sake? O.M. Yes. No man performs a duty for mere duty’s sake; the act must content his spirit _first_. He must feel better for _doing_ the duty than he would for shirking it. Otherwise he will not do it. Y.M. Take the case of the _Berkeley Castle_. O.M. It was a noble duty, greatly performed. Take it to pieces and examine it, if you like. Y.M. A British troop-ship crowded with soldiers and their wives and children. She struck a rock and began to sink. There was room in the boats for the women and children only. The colonel lined up his regiment on the deck and said “it is our duty to die, that they may be saved.” There was no murmur, no protest. The boats carried away the women and children. When the death-moment was come, the colonel and his officers took their several posts, the men stood at shoulder-arms, and so, as on dress-parade, with their flag flying and the drums beating, they went down, a sacrifice to duty for duty’s sake. Can you view it as other than that? O.M. It was something as fine as that, as exalted as that. Could you have remained in those ranks and gone down to your death in that unflinching way? Y.M. Could I? No, I could not. O.M. Think. Imagine yourself there, with that watery doom creeping higher and higher around you. Y.M. I can imagine it. I feel all the horror of it. I could not have endured it, I could not have remained in my place. I know it. O.M. Why? Y.M. There is no why about it: I know myself, and I know I couldn’t _do_ it. O.M. But it would be your _duty_ to do it. Y.M. Yes, I know—but I couldn’t. O.M. It was more than thousand men, yet not one of them flinched. Some of them must have been born with your temperament; if they could do that great duty for duty’s _sake_, why not you? Don’t you know that you could go out and gather together a thousand clerks and mechanics and put them on that deck and ask them to die for duty’s sake, and not two dozen of them would stay in the ranks to the end? Y.M. Yes, I know that. O.M. But you _train_ them, and put them through a campaign or two; then they would be soldiers; soldiers, with a soldier’s pride, a soldier’s self-respect, a soldier’s ideals. They would have to content a _soldier’s_ spirit then, not a clerk’s, not a mechanic’s. They could not content that spirit by shirking a soldier’s duty, could they? Y.M. I suppose not.