It is
enough if we are of the same moral and mental stature as the "main" or
"mean" part of men- that is to say as the average.
It is involved in the very essence of things that rich men who die
old shall have been mean. The greatest and wisest of mankind will be
almost always found to be the meanest- the ones who have kept the
"mean" best between excess either of virtue or vice. They hardly
ever have been prosperous if they have not done this, and, considering
how many miscarry altogether, it is no small feather in a man's cap if
he has been no worse than his neighbours. Homer tells us about someone
who made it his business aien arhoteuein kai upeirhochon emmenai allon
-- always to excel and to stand higher than other people. What
uncompanionable, disagreeable person he must have 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.
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