A  great  man  cannot  be  understood  by  his  con
temporaries.  He  can  only  be  understood  by  his
peers ;  and  his  peers  are  few.  Posterity  exalts  a
great  man's  fame  by  producing  a  number  of  great
men  to  appreciate  him.
The  great  man  is  also  necessarily  a  reformer  in
some  shape  or  other.  Every  reformer  has  to
combat  with  existing  prejudices  and  deep-rooted
passions.  To  cut  his  own  path,  he  must  displace
the  rubbish  which  encumbers  it.  He  is  therefore
in  opposition  to  his  fellow-men,  and  attacks  their
interests.  Blinded  by  prejudice,  by  passion,  and  by
interest,  men  cannot  see  the  excellence  of  him  they
oppose ;  and  hence  it  is,  as  Heine  so  admirably
says,  "  everywhere  that  a  great  soul  gives  utter
ance  to  its  thoughts  there  also  is  Golgotha."

Reformers  are  martyrs  ;  and  Socrates  was  a  re
former.  Although,  therefore,  his  condemnation

K3


202  THE    LIFE    OF    SOCilATEb.
appears  to  us  very  unjust  and  very  frightful,  to  the
Athenians'  it  was  no  more  than  the  banishment  of
Empedocles,  or  the  condemnation  of  Protagoras.
Pure  as  were  his  intentions,  his  actions  and  opinions
were  offensive.  He  incurred  the  hatred  of  party-
spirit  ;  arid  by  that  hatred  fell.  We  recognise  the
purity  of  his  intentions ;  he  does  not  oppose  us.
"We  can  pardon  what  we  believe  to  be  his  errors,
since  those  errors  wage  no  war  with  our  interests.
How  differently  were  the  Athenians  situated  !  To
them  he  was  offensive.  He  hated  injustice  and
folly  of  all  kinds,  and  never  lost  an  occasion  of
exposing  them.  A  man  who  sets  up  for  the  critic
of  his  age  cannot  escape  the  critic's  penalty.  So
crates  censured  freely,  openly.
