The First and Last Duty

Excerpted from the magazine "The New Woman," from the section "To the Daughter of My Country," May 1925.

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The first and last duty of every human being is to be, in all his conditions, the best that he can possibly be.

And when we say that the word "duty" means something owed, which must without fail be rendered, we must inquire, or ask, to whom this duty is owed! Taxes, for instance, are owed to the treasuries of the government — render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's — but there are many other duties besides these: mutual duties between children and parents, duties between wife and husband, duties between ruler and ruled, duties between servant and master, duties between the worker and the employer, duties between seller and buyer, duties between teacher and student, duties between a neighbor and his neighbor, between a partner and his partner, and duties between a man and his homeland — and other duties besides, which, if every person knew them and performed them, happiness would reign and peace would reign in society. And there is another duty, almost more important than all these duties: man's duty toward himself — his duty to be reasonable, wise, steady, and temperate; guarding his health, guarding his manners and his good name, guarding his relations and his dealings, treating others as he would have them treat him. When he has performed this duty, and when he has performed his last and greatest duty toward his Creator, he walks in the paths of growth — in knowledge, wisdom, beauty, and perfection.

These duties — if we know them and perform them as we ought, each of us may then say: "I have done my duty," or "I have done some part of what is owed by me."