ch in old age he must deny himself some gratifications in
youth; his present reward is his self-control. If a man will climb
higher than his fellows he must expect to be sometimes solitary; his
reward is the ever-widening view, though the path be rougher and the
air more biting than in their lower altitude. If he point to heights
yet to attain, the majority will disbelieve him or say, "Our present
height was good enough for our ancestors, it is good enough for us.
Why sacrifice a good thing and make yourself ridiculous scrambling
after what in the end may prove unattainable?" If you discover new
truths you will certainly be called a subverter of old ones. And
this is entirely natural. The upward path was never intended to be
easy.

Read the "Gorgias" of Plato, and let us listen to the closing words
of Socrates in that dialogue: "And so, bidding farewell to those
things which most men account honors, and looking onward to the
truth, I shall earnestly endeavor to grow, so far as may be, in
goodness, and thus live, and thus, when the time comes, die. And, to
the best of my power, I exhort all other men also; and you
especially, in my turn, I exhort to this life and contest, which is,
I protest, far above all contests here." You must remember that
Callicles has been taunting Socrates with his lack of worldly wisdom
and the certainty that in any court of justice he would be
absolutely helpless because of his lack of knowledge of the
rhetorician's art: "This way then we will follow, and we will call
upon all other men to do the same, not that which you believe in and
call upon me to follow; for that way, Callicles, is worth nothing."

And Socrates met the end which he expected: death at the hands of
his fellow-citizens.

And here perhaps a little glimmer of light is thrown into one of the
darkest corners of human experience. The wise old author of
Ecclesiastes writes: "There is a just man that perisheth in his
righteousness; and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in
his wickedness. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that
there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of
the wicked; again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth
according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is
vanity." "I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to
the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the
wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor