Anyone who
has seriously tried to practise any sort of virtue, however meagre, will know the
necessity of making a habit of it –
not just “knowing” it theoretically, but engraving it into his very being by
constant repetition, so that he becomes what he repeatedly does. Because of
this necessity for constant repetition, virtue cannot be left to the “important
things” alone, but must permeate the insignificant and trivial ones as well. This
is why the Hagakure contains the
advice that “small matters should be taken seriously”; and this is perhaps also
the reason behind the more arbitrary and petty aspects of religious and traditional
codes.
In any
case, it is a concept sorely neglected in the present day, as relativism
provides the ultimate excuse to force all forms of virtue to bend and flex in
the wind of particular circumstances and situations. But someone who cannot practise
virtue inflexibly and habitually is very rarely able to practise it at all. Contrary
to the belief of almost all of our contemporaries, someone who is accustomed to
telling thousands of gentle lies and half-truths in everyday life cannot simply
put down his habit of dishonesty to think about “important things” like life,
the world, and himself; and this is similar to the truth that, despite much fantasising to the contrary,
someone who is accustomed to avoiding confrontation in small matters of honour
will rarely be able to draw his courage from its rusty scabbard on an occasion
when he really needs it.
