DISCIPLINE 181 



are not only required to endure pain, but to submit 

 to the sternest discipline. First, we need self-dis- 

 cipline. Each individual finds that he is required 

 to exercise his faculties to the full, make the utmost 

 of himself, attain to the highest of which he is cap- 

 able, and be ready for any sacrifice. So he must 

 train his faculties to the highest. He is required 

 also to work in concert with his fellows. The stern 

 obligation is therefore upon him to forgo his own 

 private advantage in order that the common end 

 may be achieved. This obligation he has readily to 

 acknowledge and submit to. He has also to acknow- 

 ledge what he owes to Nature, what is his duty to 

 Nature. And that duty he has to perform and her 

 authority he has to admit. He can retain his free- 

 dom and initiative and enterprise. But he has to 

 obey the laws of Nature, acknowledge her authority, 

 submit to her discipline. No soldiers were more 

 full of independence and initiative than the Aus- 

 tralians, but no troops at the end of the War realised 

 better than they did that success can only be 

 achieved through strictest discipline as well as free- 

 dom and initiative. The lover also knows that only 

 through the sternest discipline and constraint upon 

 himself is his object attained. Thus there is an im- 

 perative necessity upon a man to be orderly in his 

 behaviour, loyal, faithful, dutiful, and obedient to 

 the ideal within him. Any failure in loyalty and 

 obedience is a sin against Nature and a sin against 

 himself. The call of honour and of humanity is upon 

 him, and that call he has to obey without hesitation. 

 Equally are men expected to be ready to 

 exercise authority, to maintain discipline and pre- 



14 



