“A good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and
repairs the evil” implies that you are only good if you realize you are making
a mistake and make an effort to correct it. Sir Alexander Fleming tried this
when he realized that he made a mistake in his experiment and threw it out. Thankfully
for everyone, he later noticed that his “accident” was dissolving all of the bacteria
around it and gave it a second look, therefore discovering penicillin. What if
Fleming had just “repaired the evil”, left his petri dish in the garbage and started
over the way he planned? So many good things come out of taking a different
course than planned and staying on that course even when you know it’s wrong,
while not always smart, is commendable.
We learn we take the wrong path, or make a mistake. We know
what went wrong. We know what to change next time. A person who had never
studied before, and then failed their first college exam learned something
after that test. They learned that they have to study and can’t just remember
everything from class. Even though that person was clearly aware that they were
taking a path considered to be wrong, they took it anyway and learned something
from it. If they had realized their “course was wrong” and studied before the
exam, they may have ever learned the importance of studying and just done it as
a formality. That failed test gave that person new insight and knowledge that
may have not had before which I personally feel is more useful than never doing
anything wrong in the first place.
Taking the path less traveled, while not the popular thing
to do, can sometimes be the most beneficial. If we stop, analyze, and “repair
the evil” of every single thing we did, we would never learn. Mistakes are a
part of life and people need to be afraid to make them and push forward, regardless.
Pride is not crime, cowardice is.