'Nothing is amusing when you are obliged to do it,' answered the other.
'Duty is the hair shirt of the nineteenth century. A man who does his
duty is just as uncomfortable while he is doing it as any Trappist who
ever buckled on a spiked belt under his gown.'
'But afterwards?'
'Afterwards? What is afterwards? It is nothing to you or me. Afterwards
means the time when you and I are buried, and the next generation are
writhing in hair shirts of their own making, and prickly girdles which
they put on themselves.' Rex laughed oddly.
'I differ from you,' answered Greif.
'You are a Korps student, sir. Does that mean that you wish to quarrel
with me?' 'Not unless you choose. I am not in search of a row this
morning. I differed from you as to your view of duty. It seems to me
contrary to German ideas.'
'Facts are generally contrary to all ideas,' answered Rex.
'Not in Germany--at least so far as duty is concerned. Besides, if
science is true, facts must agree with it. Political ethics are a
science, and duty is necessary to the system that science has created.
What would become of our military supremacy if the belief in duty were
suddenly destroyed?'
'I do not know. But I know that it will not make the smallest
difference to us, what becomes of it, when we are dead and buried.'
'It would change the condition of our children for the worse.'
'You need not marry. No one obliges you or me to become the fathers of
new specimens of our species.
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