5. If we only knew the motive back of the praise bestowed upon us, or of the censure passed upon us, we should cease to value praise, and to fear censure.
6. Man has his own tribunal within himself, his conscience. Only its judgment should be cherished.
7. Search for the best man among those who are condemned by the world.
8. If the multitude hates someone it is well first to judge very carefully why it is so, before joining ia ocwr
demning him. If the multitude is partial to someone^ it 18 well to judge very carefully why it is so, before forming an opinion. Confucius.
9. Our life cannot be harmed so much by evil doers who would corrupt us, as by the unthinking multiude which drags us along like a maelstrom.
Ш.
Ruinous Effects of Vanity
1. Society says to the man: think as we think, believe as we believe; eat and drink as we eat and drink; dress as we dress. If any fail to comply with these demands, society will torment them with ridicule, gossip and abuse. It is hard not to submit, but if you submit, you are still worse off; submit, and you are no longer a free man; you are a slave.
Lucy Mattory.
2. It is meritorious to study for the sake of the soul, in order to be wiser and better. Such study is useful to people. But when people study for the sake of human glory, in order to be reputed as men of learning, such study is not only useless, but injurious, and renders them less wise and kindly than they had been before taking up these studies.
Chinese wisdom.
3. Do not praise yourself, even do not let others praise you. Praise ruins the soul, because it substitutes desire for human glory in place of caring for the soul.
4. We frequently see that a good, wise and just man, although he sees the wrong of warfare, meat eating, robbing human creatures of necessities, condemning people, and of many other evil deeds, yet calmly persists in following them.
Why is this so? Because he values the opinion of others more than the verdict of his own conscience,
5. Only care for the opinion of others can explain that most common and yet most strange human action: a lie. A man knows one thing but asserts another. Why ? The only explanation is that he fears not to receive praise if he told the truth, and believes that he will be praised, if he tells a falsehood.
6. Failing to respect tradition has not done one-thousandth part of the harm that is done through veneration of old customs.
Men have long since ceased to believe many old customs, but still submit to them, because they believe that the majority of рео[Ле will condemn them, should they cease to submit to customs in which they no longer have any faith.
IV. Combating ^e Error of Vanity
1. In the first period of his life, in his infancy, man lives mainly for his body; he eats, drinks, plays and is merry. This is the first step. The older he grows the more he begins to worry about the opinion of people among whom he lives, and for the sake of that opinion, he begins to forget the demands of his body: food, drink, play and amusements. This is the second stage. The third and final stage is when man submits more and more to the demands of his soul, and for the sake of his soul, neglects the body, amusements and human glory.
Vanity is the first and crudest remedy against animal passions. But later you must deliver yourself of the remedy. There is but one cure, to live for the soul.
2. It is difficult for one man to recede from accepted usage, and yet every step towards self-bettennent brings you face to face with accepted usage and subjects you to the cen-
sure of people. The man who has set the aim of his life in striving towards perfecting himself must be ready for this.
3. It is bad to annoy people by departing from their
accepted usage, but it is worse to depart from the demands of conscience and reason by humoring popular usage.
4. Now as always it is the practice to ridicule him who sits in silence; both he who talks a great deal and he who says little, are subject to ridicule; there is no man on earth that escapes criticism. While there has never been anyone, no one exists, or ever will exist, who would be always con-denmed in all things, neither is there any one who would be always praised for all things. Therefore it is not worth while to worry about human censure or human praise.
5. The most important thing for you to know is what you think of yourself, for on this depends your happiness or lack of happiness, but not on what others think of you. Therefore, do not worry about the judgment of people, but strive to preserve your spiritual life in vigor, nor allow it to weaken.
6. You fear that you will be scorned for your meekness, but just men cannot scorn you because of it, and others do not matter; therefore, pay no heed to their judgment Why should a good cabinet maker feel hurt if a man having no knowledge of cabinet making fails to approve his work ?
Men who scorn you because of your meekness have no knowledge of what is good for man. Why should you heed their judgment ? Epictetus.
7. It is time for man to know his worth. Is he then some illegitimately born creature? It is time for him to cease casting timid glances about him, to see whether he has succeeded in pleasing people or not. No, let my head rest solid and square on my shoulders. Life was given me not
for show, but for me to live by. I recognize my obligation to live for my soul. And I will pay heed not to what people think of me, but to my life, whether I am or am not fulfilling my destiny before Him who sent me into the world.
Emerson.
8. Every man who from his youth on has yielded himself to low animal passions persists in yielding to them, al-thought his conscience demands from him other things. He does so because others are doing the same. Others are doing it for the same reason as he. There is only one way out of this: every man must free himself from dependence on the opini(His of others.
9. An hermit had a vision. He saw an angel of God descending from Heaven with a shining crown in his hand and looking about to see on whom to impose it. And the heart of the hermit burned within him. And he said to the angel of God: "How can I merit this shining crown ? I will do everything to receive this reward."
And the angel said: "Look." And turning about the angel pointed with his finger to the lands of the North. And the hermit looked and saw a huge, black cloud, which covered half of the firmament and was descending to the earth. And the cloud parted, and there issued frtKn it a vast multitude of black Ethiopians advancing towards the hermit; but back of them all stood a terrible Ethiopian giant, who was so tall that while his immense feet touched the earth, his shag^ head, with its terrifying eyes, reached up to Heaven.
"Fi^t with these, conquer them, and I shall place the crown upon your head."
And the hermit was terrified, and said:
"I can and I shall fight with all of them, but this great Ethiopian, with his feet on the ground and his head in the
sky, it is beyond human strength to fight with him, I cannot overcome him."
"Madman," replied the angel of God, "all these small Ethiopians whom you will not fight because of the fear of the huge Ethiopian back of them, they are the sinful desires of man, and they can be overcome. But the Ethiopian giant is human glory, for the sake of which men live in sin. It is needless to fight him. He is hollow and empty. Overcome sin, and he will vanish from the earth of his own accord."
V.
Take Heed of Your Soul, and Not of Your Reputation
1. The quickest and surest means to be reputed virtuous is not to appear such before men, but to labor over self, in order to become virtuous. Socrates,
2. To compel people to consider us good is much harder than to become such as we would have people think us to be. Lichtenberg.
3. He who does not think by himself, subjects himself to the thoughts of others. To put one's mind in subjection to others is a more humiliating mode of slavery than the subjection of the body. Think with your own head, do not worry about what people will say about you.