'
'Ah, papa! how melancholy that was,' said Eugene, who had listened
with the greatest attention.
'My son,' said Monsieur D'Ambly, 'when you grow up, you will see even
worse consequences arise from that want of reflection which makes us
regardless of everything that does not come under our own
observation, so that when objects are too great for us to see their
details, we think nothing about them.'
At that moment Eugene, in a musing mood, took up a stone, as was his
custom, to throw among a flight of sparrows which had alighted near
him: he paused. 'Papa,' said he, 'I will not throw a stone at those
sparrows, for I remember how sorry I feel when any person torments my
sister's canary bird, and when I see the poor little thing trying to
save itself in every corner of the cage: it seems to me as if each of
those sparrows, were I to frighten them, would feel just as my
sister's bird does.'
'That is precisely, my son, what you ought to do if ever you are
entrusted with the interests of a number of persons at once; and that
you may be tempted to forget that the regiment you command, or the
department you have to manage, is composed of men like yourself; and
you should always put yourself, or those you love, in the place of
each of them.
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