The Worcester spy., 1899-07-25

| exemplifed by what Ribot calls sys-
| tematized difddenee. 1t is developed
| from common diffidence. With high
| degree of self-consciouSness. it is nat
ural that the difiident takes up intro
| spection.
The difident fails to get along with
| those about him, his sself-consclousness
grows into introspection, and he begins
| to find excuses for his diffidence and
| becomes. an egotist. After time he
| begins not to care for the opinions Of
| others, he may come to pride himself
| on not being like other men and the
| whole inner man becomes distorted and
| unnatural This has been called the
| malady of ideals. They dream of What
| they will do when the great experiences
| of life come to them, and when they
do come in their every day clothes,
they do not recognize them.
1t is but short step from this to feel
that the world is deception. And it is
but single step from this to haugh-
ty and uncompromising pride in his po-
! sition. But there is an element of fol-
| sity and affectation in this life, no mat
| ter how unpleasant the experience may
| be to the one who is passing through it.
| He begins to wish for sympathy to get
| tired of ideals. He makes friends in
order to tell condolences. He may seek
| for sympathy in books, and if he has
the talent he may take to making
books himself like Rosseau. Pity a
| self-conseious person; he needs it.
The hypochondriacal are those who
worry about health. Doctors have pa
tients like this. This condition of wor-
rying about bodily conditions is par
allel with worrying about ones soul.
Feelings do not come into the mind ex-
cept through some conditions. No one
who ever kept his eye on himself to see
if he We're enjoying himself, gets to the
party. 1t may be asked whether in
trospection destroys the feelings. Prob
ably not the feelings are put off, but
not destroyed.
In moral hypochondria, the first as
pect comes very often to young people
who may be inclined religiously. He
begins to ask himself if he has expe-
rienced religion, If he has been con-
verted and he looks for some unusual
experience. He is trying to do some
thing that is impossible. These feel
ings lie outside of intfospection
He begins to pull his motives to pie
ces, and as Charles Kingsley says,
Motives are like chemicals; the more
you analyze them, the worse they
smell"
There is a hypochondria of feeling.
People who look into their soul to dis
if they decide 1t is usually wrong. You
must see your hero in the dark or not
at all.
To think of disease is about as bad as
to suffer from disease. 1t is probable
that a man would rather know he had
heart disease, than to be uncertain
about it. A man instead of wondering
if he had experienced religion would
rather go to the devil forever.
icfi Lat
have a great work to do in cases of
this kind. They teach a person to rely
on something outside of self The se-
cret Of getting rid of these things is to
let them go, stop thinking about them.
These cases are essentially selfish. The
question is simply to turn attention
away from self.
Rest, health, are cures. One should
keep a surplus vitality for charities
sake. Use all the arts to turn yourself
away from yourself, do something for
somebody else.