San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-06-21

not your OWu. Anu yeI lhiS 10 dDoul
the size of the preaching against sell
fishness. Blessed is the man who is
not deceived thereby.
Beware of the man who breaches to
you the wisdom and beauty and good
of cleaning up the door yard of your
neighbor and neglecting your own. II
he tells you that the virtue lies in
cleaning the premises of your neigh
Dor before you do those that belong
to yourself, believe him not. If he
would send you on a foreign mission
preaching deliverance to some foreign
heather, while your own family and
friends and neighbors and townsmen
remain unconverted, obey him not. If
he insists that you supply the hunger
of others and clothe their nakedness
while you yourself are hungry and
without clothes, resent his interfer-
ence in your matters and tell him that
it is well TO do the home business be-
fore you attempt to look after the con-
Germs of others.
1t is a perversion of the meaning of
words TO say that selfishness incul-
Gates the futherance of your own in
terests at the expense of others. Sell
fishness does inculcate the further
ance of personal interests, the carry
ing forward of personal enterprises,
the arrangements for personal prog
ress and prosperity, but it does not
counsel that these be attempted at the
expense of others. COntrarywise, it
would teach that which is unjustly
acquired is not a permanent blessing
or possession, for other self are as
much interested in securing their own
as you are in securing your own, and
any infringement of their rights
would lead to retaliation. What sell
fishness does do is to set every man
diligently to watch the doors of his
own life, his own house, his own
business, and when every man does
this the whole work of the world will
be well done.
There is too much of this foreign
missionary work going on in the
world, and not enough of the home
field cultivated. The whole preaching
of this gospel of unselfishness is hon
eycombed with insincerity. 1t grows
out of that laxity of morals, and that
laziness of body, and that Incidence
Of mind that finds it easier to try and
superintend some other mans bust
ness than to successfully conduct its
own. Unselfishness is the brother of
cant and the sister Of shiftlessness.
Preaching it is the stock in trade of
those who are unequal to the task of
successfully correcting their own vic
es, improving their own business,
watching their own gates, educating
their own powers, fighting their own
fight against the oppositions of rival
ry and succeeding in their efforts to
make of themselves all that their self,
their power of self, can.
The fallacy Of this reiterated
preaching of the evils of selfishness
is seen on the slightest reflection. No
one can well do that which he is in
a great measure ignorant of. This is
why selfishness is so necessary, if the
work of the world is to be well done.
If you do not know yourself who will
know you I? If that knowledge will
not fit you for doing the work of life
for yourself, not another self, but for
your own self, how are you
to be fitted to do the work
of some other self, of whom
your own work on the insufficient
knowledge that you possess of your
self. how will your absolute ignorance
of others help them If others are in
the same boat, how is your self work
to be done if your self does not do it ?
This whole middle of life's respon-
sibilities grows out of the insane idea
of it's being ungenerous to help your
self at the expense of others. 1t is not
your fault if others do not in their
turn look out for their own interests.
No man who looks out for self prop
erly can afford to deal unjnstly with
himself, and this compels him to deal
justly with others. Selfishness does
not demand an attack upon the
interests of others, but it does demand
a defense of ones own interests. Sci.
fishness asks and counsels that the
interests of self, and in this is includ.
ed all those other selves dependent
upon your self, shall come first. The
man or woman who teaches you that
your interests are to stand to one side
while you are looking after the in,
terests of some one else, and that this
is right, is a chump. Believe him not
neither follow him He will lead yOu