A man's business is his part of the world's
work, his share of the great activities which render society
possible. He may like it or dislike it, but it is work, and as
such requires application, self-denial, discipline. It is his
drill, and he cannot be thorough in his occupation without putting
himself into it, checking his fancies, restraining his impulses,
and holding himself to the perpetual round of small details--
without, in fact, submitting to his drill. But the perpetual call
on a man's readiness, sell-control, and vigour which business
makes, the constant appeal to the intellect, the stress upon the
will, the necessity for rapid and responsible exercise of judgment
--all these things constitute a high culture, though not the
highest. It is a culture which strengthens and invigorates if it
does not refine, which gives force if not polish--the FORTITER IN
RE, if not the SUAVITER IN MODO. It makes strong men and ready
men, and men of vast capacity for affairs, though it does not
necessarily make refined men or gentlemen."
(15) On the first publication of his 'Despatches,' one of his friends
said to him, on reading the records of his Indian campaigns: "It
seems to me, Duke, that your chief business in India was to
procure rice and bullocks." "And so it was," replied Wellington:
"for if I had rice and bullocks, I had men; and if I had men, I
knew I could beat the enemy.
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