text:  The colonel's strict and somewhat overwrought sense of justice as well as his peculiar political opinions had led him moreover to declare that whatever the artificial position of his adopted son in the supposed scale of society it should be by merit only that the young volunteer should rise from the ranks through the various grades of military distinction; and upon his deathbed he had urged his friend Seaman to pursue the same system as long as Gerald should feel disposed to follow under him the career of arms