The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1906-12-29
Concerning conceit.

The man who does good work and
realizes it is conceited.
The man who does good work and
doesn't realize it is a chung,
Which had you rather be?
] don't mind telling you at once that
my own preference is for the former
state Of mind, and don't mird telling
you why. The individual who thinks
we'll of what he has done must have
done something. whereas the person.
who honestly feel; that he hasn't &C
canpiished anything usually hasn't.
Self-confidence is a positive fault, If ii
be fault, and lack of it a negative
virtue. To be conccited is to be some
thing. and not to be concefted is merely
not to be that something, without even
implying that one is something else
Anybody who achieves what he sets
out 10 achieve must become aware If
The fact. and. If that feat is repeated
often. he must in time become aware
of that fact. too. The result is newt
ably that form Of belief in self which
our contemporaries call vanity and
historians describe as genius. Even so
shrinking 2 soul as Napoleon Bona
parte cannot have passed through the
ltalien campaign without beginning to
suspect that-he knew something about
the art and science of war. You can
bet your last dollar-and if you are
chemically modest you won't have to
go far TO find it-thst Shakespeare
knew he could write fine plays, that
Wagner was certain he could compose
great music ana that Murillo was sure
or his talent as a PAINTER -
II these people hadn't believed that
they could 90 these things they would
not have tried. If eonceit had not been
an attribute in the character Of each of
them we should have had no wonder
ful picture Of Moses Striking the
Rock no "Lohengrin," 10 Hamlet"
and nothing in particular to see at the
Hotel des Invalids. Given the great
merit of honesty, George Washington
probably would have said to his wife:
Martha, old girl. it's no use; / am q
shine general-in-chief, and we should
still be paying a stamp tax into the
Golfers OF Edward VII.
Pride is the father and con aeit the
mother of al great effort. Conceit IN
spires the attempt to do all fine things
and pride follows their doing ''as the
night the day. II is an accessory he
fore and after the fact A man who
didn't have at least the germ of con-
ceit in his system wouldn't GO into
business. wouldn't make friends. and
above all wouldn't think Of such a
piece of effrontery as proposing mar
riage to tho woman he loved.
As a matter of verify, almost every
body is terribly conceited. Those of us
who are not become conceited about
that. The modest man-the really,
truly modest man-nas no right to
preen himself upon the fact until ne
reads the green bound book of q GER
tain German alienist and makes sure
that what he considers unassumption
Is not simply mental weakness. Many
a man who thinks himself modest is
only lazy.
Conceit is virtue which it is we'll
80 assume if you have it not Belief
In self is a business asset, and its mod
crate expression a great Endorsement. !
Most people are 700 busy to set a val
uat;on upon anybody. so they accept
YOUR valuation of yourself. Al least,
they do if that valuation is not wildly
wrong If 1 told you that L could
write better poetry than Keats you
would laugh at me- but if / say can
write good verse and say it often
enough, after while you will say So too.
There is :. popular prejudice against
conCeit because conceit is the obtrli- |
sion OF superiority. Those persons who |
are superior to US we detesl. Among
ignorant people nothing will make q
man unpopular more quickly than the
fact that he speaks good English. We
object to hearing a man talk c0ntinu- |
ally about himself, because that pre-
vents our talking about ourselves. |
Some men are conceited without rea- |
son. just as sometimes fine clothes |
cover an ugly body. but there is no
more cause for Directing 20 conceit on |
that account than there is for objecting |
10 fine clothes The man who is con- |
eeited is not always clever. but the
man who is clever is always conceited. |
Although frequently, compromising |
he prejudice aforesaid. he is too clever |
% reveal the fact.-Channing Pollock, /
in The Show