And finally, selfishness carried beyond a certain
point brings the penalty not only of the unfavorable opinion and
private retaliations of others, but of the publicly enforced law. "In
normal cases," we have said. And we must add that there are cases
though they are less common than we are apt to suppose in which the
good of the individual is hopelessly at variance with that of the
community. If our fellows could be counted on for a fair reciprocity
of self-denial and service, we should not begrudge these necessary
sacrifices. The sting lies not so much in the loss of personal
pleasures as in the lack of appreciation and return; to do our part
when others are not doing theirs takes, indeed, a touch of saintliness.
Socrates drinking the hemlock, Jesus dying in agony on the cross,
Regulus returning to be tortured at Carthage, were deliberately
sacrificing their personal welfare for the good of other men. And in
numberless ways a host of heroic men and women have practiced and are
daily practicing unrewarded self-denial in the name of love and
service, self-denial which by no means always brings a joy commensurate
with the pain. These are the abnormal cases; but the abnormal is, after
all, not so very uncommon. And for these men and women we must grieve,
while we honor and admire them and hold them up for imitation. Society
must insist on just such sacrifices when they are necessary for the
good of the whole, and must so train its youth that they will be
willing to make them when needful.
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