It addresses one who has come to terms with the frailty of his personal soul, the volatility of his passions, his lack of strength of purpose, and then makes honest self-judgment. This brings to mind the seventh of the Eightfold Path, where the Buddha urges that we develop right contemplation, right recollectiveness or self-awareness. In handling a crisis of hostility, if we make an honest appraisal of the jungle of our own personality we will find enough weaknesses to give us fellow feeling and compassion for our potential adversary. Those who are callous, without the ability to mourn, cannot express true joy. We should not desensitize our nature so that we can look at cruelty or another's calamity with indifference.
Compassion is a noble sentiment and is, in no way, selfish.
Tears are not the end, for the final result of the application of the spirit of compassion is the attainment of courage and peace. Meek, in ancient Greek, is praos , the mean between two extremes, the happy medium between too much and too little. Moses, Jesus, and most of their countrymen could become irate, but the ideal put forward was unselfish anger when injustice was done to others or a principle was involved. This refers to those who have a blazing desire to find the just and proper course and pursue it. We have to put principles before passions, which requires that the soul yield its clamoring to the quiet peace of the spirit.