CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT 201 



SO, bidding farewell to those things which most men ac- 

 count honors, and looking onward to the truth, I shall 

 earnestly endeavor to grow, so far as may be, in good- 

 ness, 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 wis- 

 dom and the certainty that in any com't of justice he 

 would be absolutely helpless because of his lack of 

 knowledge of the rhetorician's art : " This way then 

 we will foUow, 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 hap- 

 peneth 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 to men of skill ; but time 

 and chance happeneth to them all " (Eccles. viii. 14. ; 



