WHICH TREATS OF THE CURIOUS DISCOURSE DON QUIXOTE DELIVERED ON ARMS AND

LETTERS

Continuing his discourse Don Quixote said: "As we began in the student's

case with poverty and its accompaniments, let us see now if the soldier

is richer, and we shall find that in poverty itself there is no one

poorer; for he is dependent on his miserable pay, which comes late or

never, or else on what he can plunder, seriously imperilling his life and

conscience; and sometimes his nakedness will be so great that a slashed

doublet serves him for uniform and shirt, and in the depth of winter he

has to defend himself against the inclemency of the weather in the open

field with nothing better than the breath of his mouth, which I need not

say, coming from an empty place, must come out cold, contrary to the laws

of nature. To be sure he looks forward to the approach of night to make

up for all these discomforts on the bed that awaits him, which, unless by

some fault of his, never sins by being over narrow, for he can easily

measure out on the ground as he likes, and roll himself about in it to

his heart's content without any fear of the sheets slipping away from

him. Then, after all this, suppose the day and hour for taking his degree

in his calling to have come; suppose the day of battle to have arrived,

when they invest him with the doctor's cap made of lint, to mend some

bullet-hole, perhaps, that has gone through his temples, or left him with

a crippled arm or leg. Or if this does not happen, and merciful Heaven

watches over him and keeps him safe and sound, it may be he will be in

the same poverty he was in before, and he must go through more

engagements and more battles, and come victorious out of all before he

betters himself; but miracles of that sort are seldom seen. For tell me,

sirs, if you have ever reflected upon it, by how much do those who have

gained by war fall short of the number of those who have perished in it?

No doubt you will reply that there can be no comparison, that the dead

cannot be numbered, while the living who have been rewarded may be summed

up with three figures. All which is the reverse in the case of men of

letters; for by skirts, to say nothing of sleeves, they all find means of

support; so that though the soldier has more to endure, his reward is

much less. But against all this it may be urged that it is easier to

reward two thousand soldiers, for the former may be remunerated by giving

them places, which must perforce be conferred upon men of their calling,

while the latter can only be recompensed out of the very property of the

master they serve; but this impossibility only strengthens my argument.




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