The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1893-07-20
SELF MEASUREMENT.
Deception About Ones Own Capacity Less
Common Than Formerly.


Common Than Formerly.
1t is nearly impossible that the
| new accuracy of self measurement
as to powers, be they intellectual or
physical. should not extend, in a de-
gree at least. to qualities, and we be-
lieve it does We will not say men
are not self deceived still as to their
virtues and vices, but they are much
less deceived than they were. They
know for the most part perfectly
well if they have ,tempers, or if
they are tyrannical, or if they are
greedy, or if they are selfish, or if
they are afraid of danger. They
may not admit a defect of qualities
as they admit defect of powers, be.
cause their new clearness of vision
has developed new dread of cir
cumstantial opinion, but they recog-
nIze it fully and sometimes make of
the recognition basis for action in
life.
We have known at least two cases
of jealous men deliberately refusing
profitable positions in which that
passion would be strongly excited
and have repeatedly heard men as
sign their tempers as difficulties
which would, as they saw with per
feet clearness, impede their success
in life. AS to greed, we believe its
recognition to be the commonest of
all things and constant reason
with the man himself either for
choosing a career or. deliberately re
jecting one as too much surrounded
with temptations" for his particu
lar weakness. The timid constantly
decline good prospects for careers fer
which they know themselves unfit
ted, and SO, occasionally to the in
tolerable vexation of their friends,
do the lazy, who very often are thor
oughly aware of and deplore a vice
if it is vice, which depends on
circumstances-of which they never
theless cannot purge their natures
II know" says the man SO affect
ed, that I shall shirk the work.
Liars, too, are keenly aware of their
special temptation, and though they
refuse nothing on account of it are
wonderfully aware of the risks they
run, and usually, though not always.
hate those who bring their vice into
active exercise.
Selfishness is more subtle quail
ty, because it takes to itself intellec.
tual disguise-the selfish desire for
dominance, for example, often pre-
senting itself under the appearance
of duty. But even selfishness, we
imagine, seldom hides itself from the
man whose nature it corrodes. Ger
tainly the most selfish man we ever
encountered knew thoroughly that
he was selfish and excused himself
to himself, not by denying his vice,
but by attributing it to every other
person with whom he came in con
tact. The view inwardly as we'll as
the view outwardiy has cleared, and
the men of the day tend at all events
to realize the philosophers advice
and know themselves quite through
Whether this clearness of view in,
duces modern men to purge them
selves of their evil qualities more
than their more self deceived prede,
cessors, we cannot quite decide. On
the whole, we think not, and that
there is strong alloy of cynicism in
modern clearsightedness, but there
must be reserves in that harsh iudg-
ment and more especially about
selfishness. We never knew man
made less greedy by his controlling
will and never heard of man cured
of laziness by anything but poverty
or other deep cutting whip. Even
that often fails, laziness being in
some natures as dominant vice as
the desire for excitement which we
call "dipsomania." But we have seen
desperate and successful efforts to
control temper and, curiously
enough, real cures of selfishness eff
fected from within. The man is
helped in that last effort by the mod
ern passion for sympathy and some
times lands himself in the opposite
and stupidity illogical position of one
who believes that the pleasant course
is the selfish course and therefore
past discussion the wrong course to
pursue-which'i it may be or may not.
London Spectator.