Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/347

Rh —We have in a most painful dilemma—to which not everybody's valor and character are equal— when, as passengers of a steamer, we discover that the captain and steersman commit dangerous mistakes, and that we are their superiors in nautical knowledge—and then ask ourselves, “How now, if we stirred up a rebellion against them and made them both prisoners? Does not our superiority justify such proceedings? And again, are they not, in their turn, justified in locking us up because we corrupt obedience? ‘This is a simile for higher aud more perilous positions: and the final question at issue is, what our superiority, our faith in ourselves, warrant in sneli cases? Success? But then we must do the very thing which involves all dangers— not only dangers to ourselves, but even to the ship.

—He who truly owns himself, that is, who has ultimately conquered his eye, considers it his special privilege to punish, pardon, pity himself: he need not concede this privilege to anybody, though he may safely bestow it on another, on a friend, for instance; —but he knows that, in so doing, he confers a right, and that one ean only confer rights when in fall possession of power.