" TO DO HIS DAMNEDEST."
[To rat EDIT ON or van " SPECTATOR.") Sin,—" The Tank Corps expects that every tank this day will do its damnedest." Such was the Order of the Day issued by Sir Julian Byng on the 21st, and followed by a victory which astonished our enemies but cheered ourselves. The phrase henceforth belongs to English history, and its origin and author have a new interest.
I first heard the words forty-four years ago, and from the lips of Dr. John Brown, author of Rah and his Friends. I met him in the •streets of Edinburgh, when he at once began to talk of America, from which he had lately returned. He was deeply impressed by the spirit of the men to whom he had there been introduced. For myself, I was somewhat crestfallen by his Hoge of our American kinsmen, thinking that he, at least, could have little to learn from them, and asked if he could more closely define their merit. " They arc more alive than we," was his incisive answer, spoken somewhat sorrowfully and with full con- viction. Seeing that he bad an interested and not-fully-persuaded listener, he went on :- "Let me tell you a story, which I lately heard. A friend of mine, a Free Church minister, was in conversation with Carlyle, his old acquaintance. They were talking of early Scottish ideals, and the minister insisted on the merits of the Shorter Catbechism. Nothing, he said, could better bring the most important truths before the thoughts of the young. 'I don't think so,' said Carlyle. 'rake, said the minister, the first question and its answer What is the chief end of man? To glorify God, and enjoy Him for ever.' Do not those words give as true an ideal of life as ran be given? ' I don't think so,' still replied Carlyle. Then said the minister, a little puuled, as being unused to such opposition, can. you improve on it? What do you believe the chief end of man to be? ' The chief end of man,' replied Carlyle, with strong emphasis, 'is to do his damnedest.' "
From the tone of his words I knew that the " beloved physician" thought the reply as unanswerable as it was un-
Previous page
