Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1893-09-27
SELF MEASUREMENT.
Deception About Ones Own Capacity Lees
 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 de gree at least, to qualities, and we be heve 1t does. We will not say men gre 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 rreedy, 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 a new dread of cir cumstantial opinion. but they recog- nlze it fully and sometimes make of the recognition a 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 it's recognition to be the commonest of all things and a 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 for 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 1t is a vice, which depends on circumstances-of which they never theless cannot purge their natures.
 II know, says the man so affect ed, that l 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 a 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 1t 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 well as the view outwardly 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 a strong alloy of cynicism in modern clearsightedness, but there must be reserves in that harsh judg- ment, and more especially about selfshness. We never knew a man made less greedy by his controlling will and never heard of a man cured of laziness by anything but poverty or other deep cutting whip. Even that often fails, laziness being in some natures as dominant a vice as the desire for excitement which we call 'dipsomania. But we have seen desperate and successful efforts to contaol temper and, curiOusly enough, real cures of selishness 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 stupidly illogical position of one who believes that the pleasant course is the selfish course and therefore past discussion the wrong course to pursue-which it may be or may not. London Spectator.