st the
unhappinesses which men bring upon themselves, by the yielding to lower
desires, by prejudice, by complacency; but He made allowance for
weakness, and despaired of none; and in the presence of those darker
and sadder afflictions of body and spirit, which it seems that God
permits, if He does not authorize, He bore Himself with dignity,
patience, and confidence; He proved that nothing was unbearable, but
that the human spirit can face the worst calamities with an indomitable
simplicity, which adorns it with an imperishable beauty, and proves it
to be indeed divine.

VIII

EGOTISM

I had an experience the other day, very disagreeable but most
wholesome, which held up for a moment a mirror to my life and
character. I suppose that, at least once in his life, every one has
known what it is, in some corridor or stairway, to see a figure
advancing towards him, and then to discover with a shock of surprise
that he has been advancing to a mirror, and that the stranger is
himself. This happened to me some short while ago, and I was by no
means favourably impressed by what I saw!

Well, the other day I was conducting an argument with an irascible man.
His temper suddenly boiled over, and he said several personal things to
me, of which I did not at once recognize the truth; but I have since
considered the criticisms, and have decided that they are mainly true,
heightened perhaps by a little tinge of temper.

I am sorry my friend said the things, because it is difficult to meet,
on cordial terms, a man whom one knows to hold an unfavourable opinion
of oneself. But in one way I am glad he said them, because I do not
think I could in any other manner have discerned the truth. If a friend
had said them without anger, he would no doubt have so gilded the pill
that it would have seemed rather a precious ornament than a bitter
remedy.

I will not here say in detail what my friend accused me of, but it
amounted to a charge of egotism; and as egotism is a common fault, and
particularly common with lonely and unmarried men, I will make no
excuse for propounding a few considerations on the point, and how it
may perhaps be cured, or, if not cured, at least modified.

I suppose that the egotist is the man who regards the world as a
setting for himself, as opposed to the man who realizes that he is a
small unit in a gigantic system. The characteristic of the egotist is
to consider himself of too great importance, while t