 been. Homer's heroes
generally came to a bad end and I doubt not that this gentleman, whoever he was,
did so sooner or later.
    A very high standard, again, involves the possession of rare virtues, and
rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to
hold their own in the world. A virtue, to be serviceable, must, like gold, be
alloyed with some commoner but more durable metal.
    People divide off vice and virtue as though they were two things, neither of
which had with it anything of the other. This is not so. There is no useful
virtue which has not some alloy of vice, and hardly any vice, if any, which
carries not with it a little dash of virtue; virtue and vice are like life and
death or mind and matter - things which cannot exist without being qualified by
their opposite. The most absolute life contains death, and the corpse is still
in many respects living; so also it has been said, »If thou, oh Lord shouldst be
extreme to mark what is done amiss,« which shows that even the highest ideal we
can conceive will yet admit so much compromise with vice, as shall »countenance
the poor abuses of the time« if they are not too outrageous. That vice pays
homage to virtue is notorious; we call this hypocrisy; there should be a word
found for the homage which virtue not unfrequently pays - or at any rate would
be wise in paying - to vice.
    I grant that some men will find happiness in having what we all feel to be a
higher moral standard than others. If they go in for this, however, they must be
content with virtue as her own reward, and not grumble if they find lofty
Quixotism an expensive luxury whose rewards belong to a kingdom that is not of
this world. They must not wonder if they cut a poor figure in trying to make the
most of both worlds. Disbelieve as we may the details of the accounts which
record the growth of the Christian religion, yet a great part of Christian
teaching will remain as true as though we accepted the details. We cannot »serve
God and Mammon«; »strait is the way, and narrow is the gate« which leads to what
those who live by faith hold to be best worth having, and there is no way of
saying this better than the Bible has done. It is well there should be some who
think thus, as it is well there should be speculators in commerce, who will
often burn their fingers - but
