the cause of this _terrible_ evil which has befallen
him?--and he slides completely over the real cause. _And keeps on
repeating it_.

Self-righteousness, by blinding your eyes to the truth, is the direct
cause of the most gigantic and the most subtle miseries of the world.
These awfully good people who fully realize how hard they have always
tried to do right, are the unhappiest people in the world--unless I
except Tom, Dick, Harry and Fan, the victims of these self-righteous
reformers. No, I can't even except these; for they at least generally
succeed in having their own way in spite of the would-be reformer. But
what so utterly disheartening as continued _lack of success_? And the
self-righteous one never succeeds. It is hard, _hard_, to be so wise and
willing, with such _high_ ideals (the self-righteous one in