The Arizona sentinel., 1888-09-22
LOOK OUT AND NOT IN.
How to Cure Self-Consclousness and tn
 Evil Disposition It Produces.

There are great many people who
 are so intent on seeing the stars at the
 bottom of the well that they are obliv-
 ious of the splendid procession in the
 heavens; who are so given to the habit
 of finding all truth within themselves
 that they miss the great movement
 and inspiration of the larger life
 without. There is kind of introspec
 tion which is thoroughly healthful and
 profitable, which brings a man to self knowledge and makes clear to him the
 strong and weak points of his charac- ter. This kind of introspection is one of the processes by which men reach a well-developed and harmonious life. But there is another kind of intro spection which is thoroughly un- healthy and demoralizing; a habit into which many fall unconsciously, and which grows by what it feeds up- on. In a sound life self-consciousness is not a predominant mood. Such a life is so engrossed in dealing with the questions that are presented to it by the opportunities and duties of each day, and by the scope and necessity of its work, that it has small time for measuring its gifts and estimating it's resources in comparison with those in the possession of other men. One of the most unhappy men in the world is he who, instead of measuring has strength against his work, ic al .iraic net the strength of other men. This habit, as soon as formed, becomes tyrannical, develops jealousy, discon- tent, morbidness, and brings forth in the end almost every form of mean ness which can be expressed in action.
 Dr. Haie's motto thoroughly prac-
 iced is an immense aid to moral and intellectual health. It frees one from envy, hatred and malice, and most of the uncharitableness which is the bane of society. The man of morbid self consciousness rarely sees any thing in pure atmosphere; acts and words come to him through a distorted me dium. He can look at nothing apart. from himself. He studies his friends as if they might at any moment be- come his enemies; weighing every word, scrutinizing every action, prone to constant misinterpretation. He can not bear that any one else should re- ceive the attention which he thinks ought to be exclusively his own. If that which he thinks ought to be giv- en to him is given to another, he be- comes cynical, and declares that there is no such thing as true friend ship in the world. He makes no al- lowance for the breadth of other mems interests, the largeness of their sym pathies, or the extent of their needs of companionship. Instead of asking himself whether he can supply all that his friend needs, he assumes that every need satisfied apart from himself is a sign of conscious dislOyalty. Such men are to be found in every com munity, and their presence involves a waste of energy which they have no right to exact They can never be approached as men of more heath ful nature, by the presentation of the principles or aims of plan in which their cooperation is solicited; they must always be care fully studied, and their prejudices, animosities and morbid self-conscious- ness carefully taken into account.
 One of the first elements of growth is to get rid of an undue sense of per- sonality; is to be able to sink one's personality in the consideration of larger and more important interests. To be always thinking of how a ques- tion is going to affect one personally, l or how other men are going to treat | one, is to lose grip on the real interests of life and to put ones self in false | attitude toward them. A man ought | to have too much self-respect to be | continually asking himself the ques- tion whether other men are giving him his due. Not until one gets rid of this morbid self-cOnsciousness can he truly | enjoy any thing which life has to offer. | The charm of friendship lies in the ab- l sence of this spirit of demand ing and measuring, lies in the unconsciousness with which one gives and receives. A man ought to | esteem himself worthy of the best | friends, and then cease to think about | the matter. Scarcely less vicious and | 1emoralizing is the habit, which grows put of morbid self-consciousness, of | measuring every thing out of our own standards, and demanding that all men shall conform to our own habits and meet our own self-created require- ments. This is a large world, and its life is so vast and varied that the man who tries to measure it by his own yardstick disclOses only his own little ness. One comes to understand life | thoroughly and to enter into it health i fully only when he makes large allow ance for the standards of other men, and comedies in his action as well as his thought that other methods and | points of view are quite as likely to be sound and true as his own.
 There is altogether too much busi- ness done with the yardstick; too wide an application of local standards to the activities of the world. What is needed is a truer perspective, larger comprehension of the currents of life and of the immense variety of its de- velopment. Travel is the best educa- ton out of provincialism. UnfOrtu- natelv all men can not travel 1t is