as been said about the
structure of our habitual representations of other individuals, that our
ordinary representation of ourselves will be tinged with that mass of
error which we have found to be connected with single acts of
introspection, recollections of past personal experience, and illusory
single expectations of future personal experiences. How large an opening
for erroneous conviction here presents itself can only be understood by
a reference to certain deeply fixed impulses and feelings connected
with, the very consciousness of self, and favouring what I have marked
off as active illusion. I shall try to show very briefly that each man's
intuitive persuasion of his own powers, gifts, or importance--in brief,
of his own particular value, contains, from the first, a palpable
ingredient of active illusion.

Most persons, one supposes, have with more or less distinct
consciousness framed a notion of their own value, if not to the world
generally, at least to themselves. And this notion, however undefined it
may be, is held to with a singular tenacity of belief. The greater part
of mankind, indeed, seem never to entertain the question whether they
really possess points of excellence. They assume it as a matter
perfectly self-evident, and appear to believe in their vaguely conceived
worth on the same immediate testimony of consciousness by which they
assure themselves of their personal existence. Indeed, the conviction of
personal consequence may be said to be a constant factor in most men's
consciousness. However restrained by the rules of polite intercourse, it
betrays its existence and its energy in innumerable ways. It displays
itself most triumphantly when the mind is suddenly isolated from other
minds, when other men unite in heaping neglect and contempt on the
believer's head. In these moments he proves an almost heroic strength of
confidence, believing in himself and in his claims to careful
consideration when all his acquaintance are practically avowing their
disbelief.

The intensity of this belief in personal value may be observed in very
different forms. The young woman who, quite independently of others'
opinion, and even in defiance of it, cherishes a conviction that her
external attractions have a considerable value; the young man who, in
the face of general indifference, persists in his habit of voluble talk
on the supposition that he is conferring on his fellow-creatures the
fruits of profound wis