It would be a good deal of trouble;
but then, life is a good deal of trouble anyway, if you come to that.
We cannot expect to swallow the universe like a pill, and travel on
through the world "like smiling images pushed from behind."
Blind obedience to authority is not in itself moral. It is necessary
as a part of government. It is necessary in order that we may save
children dangers of which they know nothing. It is valuable also as
a habit. But I should never try to teach it by the story of that
inspired idiot, the boy who "stood on the burning deck, whence all
but him had fled," and from whence he would have fled if his mental
endowment had been that of ordinary boys. For obedience must not
be allowed to destroy common sense and the feeling of personal
responsibility for one's own actions. Our task is to train
responsible, self-directing agents, not to make soldiers.
Virtue thrives in a bracing moral atmosphere, where good actions are
taken rather as a matter of course.
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