The union of temperance and athletic education has, indeed, been the ideal of many social reformers, from Pythagoras to Jean Jacques Rousseau,[12] and the secret of their failure was a mistake that has defeated more than one philanthropic project. They failed to begin their reform at the basis of the social structure. He who fears the hardships of such a beginning lacks, after all, true faith in the destiny of his mission. Perseverance and uncompromising loyalty to the tenets of our covenant is to us a duty, as well as the best policy, for as a moral offense treason itself would not be more unpardonable than doubt in the ultimate triumph of a cause like ours. There is a secret which almost seems to have been better known to the philosophers and patriots of antiquity than to this unheroic age of our own, namely, that in the arena of moral contests a clearly undeserved defeat is a step toward victory. In that warfare the scales of fate are not biased by a preponderance of gold or iron. Tyrants have reached the term of their power if they have made deliverance more desirable than life; the persuasive power of Truth is increased by oppression; and if the interests of a cause have become an obvious obstacle in the road of progress and happiness the promoters of that cause have to contend with a law that governs the tendencies of the moral as well as the physical universe, and inexorably dooms the unfit to perish.[H] The unmasked enemies of mankind have no chance to prosper. And even where their disguises still avail them amidst the ignorance of their victims we should remember the consolation of Jean Jacques Rousseau in his address to the Polish patriots: “They have swallowed you, but you can prevent them from assimilating you.” Our enemies may prevent the recovery of their spoil; they may continue to devour the produce of our fields and of our labor, but we do not propose to let them enjoy their feast in peace; whatever their gastric capacity, it will be our own fault if we do not cause them an indigestion that will diminish their appetite. “All the vile elements of society are against us,” writes one of our lecturers, “but I have no fear of the event if we do not cease to agitate the subject,” and we would, indeed, not deserve success if we should relax our efforts before we have secured the coöperation of every friend of justice and true freedom.