Opposing Forces

The forces that are at work in the physical world have a close counterpart in the forces that are at work in the lives of men. In nature there is a constant leveling process which relentlessly attempts to offset what is being built. As mountains lift their heads above the level of the plain, the winds and the rains and the frosts and the heat of the day attempt to break them down and wear them away, and the high places tend to be lowered and the valleys to be filled in. It isn’t easy to be conspicuously different even in nature. And, likewise, in the lives of men, there is a force for good which constantly works within us which would lift us to higher levels, but once let a man rear his head above mediocrity, and immediately there seem to come into evidence, those forces and influences which would pull him down again. It may be the jealousy and envy of his fellow men; it may be a man’s intoxication with his own success; it may be the temptations that seem to multiply as he ascends; it may be the power of evil. Whatever it is, in human affairs it is difficult to be conspicuously different. But our generation earnestly needs those who lift their heads above the common level and who have the strength to maintain themselves in places of high principle against the eroding winds of temptation and the heat of jealousy and the cold of criticism, and the moving, shifting sands of false compromise. We need those who have the wisdom to stem the devastating floods of false philosophies, who have the moral strength to resist the downward drift. Any trend that would lead us to lower levels is a trend not to be trusted, and there is no sense or justification for fostering or following those philosophies that would lead us to lower levels not even if they would make us all alike. It isn’t easy to be different to oppose popular fallacy and prevalent opinion but our only salvation lies in standing and moving against the downward drift.