I understand
my duty to my sheep or cattle, to my master, to my father or mother,
to my brother or sister, to my pupil Davie here; I owe my ancestors
love and honour, and the keeping of their name unspotted, though
that duty is forestalled by a higher; but as to the property they
leave behind them, over which they have no more power, and which now
I trust they never think about, I do not see what obligation I can
be under to them with regard to it, other than is comprised in the
duties of the property itself."
"But a family is not merely those that are gone before; there are
those that will come after!"
"The best thing for those to come after, is to receive the property
with its duties performed, with the light of righteousness radiating
from it."
"But what then do you call the duties of property?"
"In what does the property consist?"
"In land, to begin with."
"If the land were of no value, would the possession of it involve
duties?"
"I suppose not."
"In what does the value of the land consist?"
Lady Arctura did not attempt an answer to the question, and Donal,
after a little pause, resumed.
"If you valued things as the world values them, I should not care to
put the question; but I fear you may have some lingering notion
that, though God's way is the true way, the world's way must not be
disregarded. One thing, however, is certain--that nothing that is
against God's way can be true.
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