CICERO ON PATRIOTISM AND NATIONAL SERVICE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."
SIR,—Here is a rebuke from the old Roman to our laggards towards " National Service." He says :-
" Our country has not given us birth and reared us without expecting from us in return some 'nurture-fee.' She did not mean only to make herself the slave of our convenience and furnish us with a safe shelter to be idle in, a quiet spot for our repose; she gave us birth and nurture that she might engage our best energies and talents in her own service, allowing us to use for our own private ends so much, and so much only, as might not be needed for her own."
And, by the way, let me add that I think the very best word that I have yet come across re National Service was that of a correspondent in one of your late issues, to the effect that it ought to he a case of " No National Service, no vote" to every capable young man in the country.—I am, Sir, &c.,
D. R.
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