that illumines the heart. And yet may the kiss be productive of joy
no less great than the pain that follows a wound. We are unjust; we
never associate destiny with happiness; and if we do not regard it
as being inseparable from death, it is only to connect it with
disaster even greater than death itself.

49. Were I to refer to the destiny of OEdipus, Joan of Arc,
Agamemnon, you would give not a thought to their lives, but only
behold the last moments of all, the pathway of death. You would
stoutly maintain that their destiny was of the saddest, for that
their end was sad. You forget, however, that death can never be
happy; but nevertheless it is thus we are given to judging of life.
It is as though death swallowed all; and should accident suddenly
end thirty years Lot unclouded joy, the thirty years would be hidden
away from our eyes by the gloom of one sorrowful hour.

50. It is wrong to think of destiny only in connection with death
and disaster. When shall we cease to believe that death, and not
life, is important; that misfortune is greater than happiness? Why,
when we try to sum up a man's destiny, keep our eyes fixed only on
the tears that he shed, and never on the smiles of his joy? Where
have we learned that death fixes the value of life, and not life
that of death? We deplore the destiny of Socrates, Duncart,
Antigone, and many others whose lives were noble; we deplore; their
destiny because their end was sudden and cruel; and we are fain to
admit that misfortune prevails over wisdom and virtue alike. But,
first of all, you yourself are neither just nor wise if you seek in
wisdom and justice aught else but wisdom and justice alone. And
further, what right have we thus to sum up an entire existence in
the one hour of death? Why conclude, from the fact that Socrates and