The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1872-05-09
Uhe Uribuuf.

| Next to thorough knowledge of one S
self is a just and true opinion of personal
worth. Not that feeling of self impor-
lance which induces a man to avail him.
self of every opportunity of impressing
! upon his fellows the fact-if it be one
of his superior fitness for leadership and
command. Loud boasting and assump-
ton shows no true selfestimate but only
a disgusting self coneeit. A man who
has just estimate Of himself is never a
braggart, but on the contrary generally a
quiet man, a man of few but weighty
words.
No man has ever accomplished any
great thing unless he was possessed of a
certain feeling of Egoism, a certain pride
of self. certain confidence in bis individ-
ual judgment and alb lily.
For it is true that nearly every original
man has been obliged for time to main
tain his opinion against the united world.
To do this requires no small degree of self
confidence, no small estimate of individ-
ual ability. The great world is generally
| right and opinions that have stood the
test of long past time should not be light
ly abandoned.
Selfconceit often impels man to as
sumo that he is right against all tho world
and to proclaim himself new Moses who
will lead the people out from the dark
ness Of error and superstition through
some Red sea of blood to the Canaan of
communism. Not so with the man who
truly esteems himself. While he has a
thorough consciousness of his own worth
he has with it proper humility.
Sir Isaac Newton said that the differ
ence between himself and other men lay
in his power of continued and patient
thought. He recognized perfectly the
fact that there was q difference and in
that difference he knew and felt supe-
riority over other men. Yet that same
man said that he felt himself like child
| wandering along the great ocean of Truth,
on whose sands he had gathered here and
there shell while the great ocean lay
explored before him. While he COM
pared himself with other men, he es-
teemed himself to certain extent SUI
perior. When he compared himself to
the grand universal intelligence he felt
his infinite littleness.
One great difficulty in arriving at a
| Just and true self-estimate lies In the fact
of our dual nature. There seems to be
| so much of the divine, the God-like
about US, so perplexingly intermingled
with the animal passions and desires, that
as each gains the prepondcrance for a
time, we seem to oscillate from the high
est, loftiest thoughts to the deepest, most
degrading impulses. It is the general
testimony that all experience moments
of life when there is nothing so high, SO
true. so noble, that we cannot aspire tc
| it, ard other moments when we seem
forced to believe that there is no act SO
| mean that we may not be tempted to
commit it.
You can hardly take up the works Of
any subjective writer in which 20 do not
find traces of this dual nature. No mat
| ter how much of aspiration after the good
and noble you may find there, you also
find intermingled sentences of self-accusa-
ton, declarations of unworthiness. regrets
over hours of temptation and yieldings
unto temptation. Let no one pride him
self upon his uprigbtness. When a
prophet foretold certain King tho crimes
he would commit, he said with indigna.
ton: els thy servant a dog that he
should do this thing ?" Yet when the
time came the divinity within him was
overcome, the evil triumphant and the
prophecy fulfilled. Should we attempt
to Judge ourselves by either of these
states alone, the result is vanity in the
one instance, dependency in the other
A rational self esteem is great induce
ment to virtue. No matter how much
other men may praise al ln. how high
he may stand in the community, yet if he
should do any acts from base motives, nc
consciousness of inward approval car
come to him. Should he for a time en-
terrain unworthy motives, then comes tc
him consciousness of self-degradation
a selfcondemnation that spurs him bacl
again to the right path. He who truly
esteems himself can never go far astray
Should he become reckless, should h
wander off into forbidden paths, into folly
and dissipation, this selfregard is strong
enough to arrest his progress and leac
him back to virtue, up even to the high
est good.