Excerpt from Garden of Eden by John Steinbeck (pages 413-414)
I remember clearly the deaths of three men. One was the richest man of the century, who, having clawed his way to wealth through the souls & bodies of men, spent many years trying to buy back the love he had forfeited & by that process performed great services to the world and, perhaps, had much more than balanced the evil of his rise. When the news of his death was posted, nearly everyone received the news with pleasure. Several said, “Thank God that son of a bitch is dead.”
Then there was a man, smart as Satan, lacking some perception of human dignity and knowing all too well every aspect of human weakness and wickedness, used his special knowledge to warp men, to buy men, to bribe and threaten and seduce until he found himself in a position of great power. He clothed his motives in the names of virtue, and I have wondered whether he knew that no gift will ever buy back a man’s love when you have removed his self-love. A bribed man can only hate his briber. When this man died the nation rang with praise and with gladness that he was dead.
There was a third man, who perhaps made many errors in performance but whose effective life was devoted to making men brave and dignified and good in a time when they were poor and frightened and when ugly forces were loose in the world to utilize their fears. This man was hated by the few. When he died the people burst into tears in the streets and their minds wailed, “What can we do now? How can we go on without him?”
I am praying to God that for the remainder of my life, I will be like the third man to the best of my ability.
