Part one - THE TRUTH There is nothing more beautiful and sublime than the Truth, objectively speaking, for it is God himself, the Absolute Reality, the source of All Realities. Even Death itself the seemingly ugliest Reality of Truth feared by many has its own Beauty and Glory. When Socrates, the Great Philosopher of Ancient Greece, was threatened by the members of the Tribunal before which he was charged for corrupting the youth by his teachings which he considered the Truth, on penalty of Death if he refused to retract, he flatly refused to yield and preferred to be sentenced to die, and after the death penalty was promulgated, Socrates delivered one of the most beautiful orations ever to be made by a man, which he closed with the following cryptic remarks: "My friends, we have come to the parting of our ways, you to live and I to die, only God knows which is better." Rizal said that one should die if necessary for his principles, for the things he believes in, and he made good what he said, with the sublime sacrifice of his life on December 30, 1896. Everyone is familiar with the edifying anecdote of George Washington and the cherry tree. When Groover Cleveland was severely attacked for having illicit relation with a woman not his wife and having a child with her, his leaders wired him to deny the charge, but he wired back, "Tell the Truth." When Galileo was summoned by the Holy Inquisition to retract on his theory of the Planetary System which runs against the theory supposedly Catholic that the earth is the fixed center of the universe, the poor fellow, lacking in courage to face death, signed the retraction demanded from him on penalty of death, but said in whisper, "And yet it moves," referring to the earth. Every Rotarian should cultivate the love of Truth, and make it a habit to tell the Truth when a situation arises where it becomes his duty to say something. When Aristotle severely attacked as fallacious the teachings of his teacher, Plato, his classmates upbraided him for being ungrateful and disloyal to his friend and teacher, but Aristotle answered: "Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas," which in the famous language of Brutus, means, "It is not, that I love Plato less, but it is that I love truth more." Part two - FAIRNESS Fairness is involved in the general concept of justice and equity Justice is a transcendental concept emanating from God and pervading all throughout his creation. There is elemental justice which is derived from the natural forces of action and reaction. This is the justice of the elements, prevailing even among the animals and primitive races of mankind. It is the justice that follows an attack by a counterattack. It is the justice of the headhunters, those tribes of men which when one of their kinds is killed calls for the killing of one of the enemy tribe. It is the justice maintaining the solidarity of the group of brigands in the division of their loot. It is the justice that we can read in the Sacred Book as the law of the Talion which demands "tooth for a tooth, eye for an eye." There is also a justice that transcends heaven, which is divine justice, the justice that only God can dispense, because he is the only one who knows all the factors to make it absolutely accurate. We are not concerned with this kind of justice because it is beyond our comprehension. And there is human justice, limited justice of course, because of the fallibility of the human mind, the root of which can be found in human conscience. This is the justice upon which human fairness is based. Fairness is the foundation of all orderly human relations. It is the basic law which governs peaceful and orderly life. Confucius has enunciated it in the famous proverb: Do not do unto others what you do not wish done unto you; which Jesus Christ has improved upon in a positive form: Do unto others as you would others do unto you. Peace, order, progress and prosperity can only be achieved if all men are guided throughout their lives by an equitable exchange of values, for fairness is the basis of all civil laws in all civilized nations. In the concept of fairness is involved the following general principles of law: Do ut des; Do ut facias; Facio ut des; and Facio ut facias; which means: I give so that you may give; I give so that you may do; I do so that you may give; and I do so that you may do. Or in more explicit terms, gift for gift; gift for service; service for gift; and service for service. In one word: Reciprocity. Part three - GOODWILL, FRIENDSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP It has been said with good reason that the law of development in the lower echelon of creation or of the Universe for that matter, is survival of the fittest, and that the law of development in the higher echelon of life is love, which is the highest attribute of God. If the human heart is filled with love, so that there can be no room in it for hatred and its minor derivations, such as envy, jealousy, and vindictiveness, then the march of mankind towards the millenium as envisioned by the sublime prophesy of Isaiah, when men shall have beaten their swords into ploughshares, their spears into pruning hooks, then the song of the angels in heaven at the birth of the Messiah in a manger at Bethlehem shall be heard resounding throughout all the confines of the Universe: Glory to God in the high heavens; peace on earth among men of goodwill. The Talionic law of the Old Testament will then have no meaning, for it shall have been superseded by the new law of the God of Golgotha, the God of forgiveness, the God who returns bread for stone, the God who when slapped on his check turns the other. Goodwill is the real by-word of human understanding and fellowship. It is rooted in love. And it is well manifested in human sympathy which is just the proper atonement of one's feelings to those of others. The great Roman moralist, Terencio, used to say, "I am a man and nothing that happens to any man can be indifferent to me," and the great British Poet John Doone also said, "No man is an island entire of himself; every man is a piece of the content, a part of the main; every man's death diminishes me because I am a part of mankind." There are four stages in the spiritual and moral development of man. A man may feel offended and does not forgive; the feeling of revenge makes him unstable and unhappy. A man may feel offended but forgives and he is restored to his peace of mind because his feelings have achieved their balance, but the scars of the offense are still there. A man may feel offended and forget it and his soul has risen above him, and he has thus reached a high spiritual development. But the ideal man, the man who can verily be considered as having touched God's fect is he who does not take offense, who can never feel offended, whose soul shall always remain unsullied and unwounded. A great Spanish statesman, Aparici Guijarro, having been severely attacked and insulted in the Spanish Congress by his political enemies, was urged by his followers to answer and retaliate. After so much prodding, he stood up and said "Gentlemen, I don't take offense, when I see the arrows of insults darting towards me, I just raise my heart a little bit to let them pass under without even rubbing it." The great Abraham Lincoln when rudely attacked and called a descendant of niggers, said, "I don't want to soil my hands by throwing mud. When I see mud-slinging around, I just raise my soul high above so that no mud-slinging can ever reach it." This kind of mental attitude is the one that makes for lasting peace and understanding among all men of all races. And this is the reason why the wheel of Rotary International shall forever continue to roll over the plains and the mountains and over the crest of the waves across the oceans for it is armed with this great moral force to unite and make solid in a compact whole, all of mankind. Part four - PHILANTHROPY-ALTRUISM As you will have noticed from the discussion of the three preceding tenets of the Four-Way Test, all the four tenets are intertwined and interrelated, If one has successfully cultivated the habits of truthfulness, he is bound to gain the confidence and faith of his fellowmen. He becomes inclined to be kind and fair. He is bound to earn the respect and goodwill of others, to be considerate of the feelings, and even of the shortcomings of his fellowmen.

And by his acts of kindness he will day in and day out sow seeds of goodwill and friendship; he will never take undue advantage of other people how- [omitted].