"That is so," concurred the soldier, "if to the word happiness you give
the right interpretation. To me the performance of one's present duty is
the only real thing that brings contentment. And duty need not always be
stern and forbidding; to laugh and play and be merry may, at the proper
time and in the proper circumstances, be a duty both to ourselves and
to others. When one lives philosophically for the present, he takes men
in all their moods and life in all its phases. The past is counted as
dead and to be forgotten, except for the experience gained to guide the
doing of the things that lie now to one's hand. The future is unseen,
but is none the less determined by our deeds, words, and thoughts of the
passing moment, each one of which, be it remembered, whether deed or
rash word, or unspoken thought, has consequences that are eternal."
"So for the man whose mind is thus attuned," again interposed the
magistrate, "the present becomes all supreme, shaped by the past,
shaping the future."
"Which means that destiny never degenerates into mere blind and helpless
fatalism," responded the Afghan. "To do the right now suffices to give
absolute trust in God for the hereafter. That is the key of destiny, and
each man holds it in his own keeping.
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