200 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good 

 and acceptable and perfect will of God." 



And this difference is exactly what I have been trying 

 to put before you. The mollusk conformed, but the 

 vertebrate conformed in a very different way, and was 

 transformed, " metamorphosed," to translate the Greek 

 word literally, into something higher. And let us not 

 forget that man conforms consciously and voluntarily, 

 if at all ; he is able to read in himself and environment 

 the law to which lower forms have been compelled un- 

 consciously to conform. 



These facts merely illustrate a great law of life. No 

 man's eye, much less hand, can grasp the whole of the 

 present and at the same time the future. Rather what 

 we usually call present advantage is not advantage at 

 all, but the first step in degeneration. If one will be 

 rich in old age he must deny himself some gratifica- 

 tions 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 disbe- 

 lieve him or say, " Our present height was good enough 

 for our ancestors, it is good enough for us. Why sac- 

 rifice a good thing and make yourself ridiculous 

 scrambling after what in the end may prove unattain- 

 able ? ' 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. 



Eead the " Gorgias " of Plato, and let us listen to 

 the closing words of Socrates in that dialogue : " And 



