The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1907-12-05
BOASTlNG.

II is a nice matter to keep the proper
balance between boasting and humility,
but if any error is to be committed II had
better be on the side of humility. Boast
ing is the result of unfounded vanity. The
man of real merit has no occasion so boast,
nor as rule does it occur to him to do so.
Self-confident and resourceful, he relies
upon himself so completely that he never
thinks of sounding his own trumpet. On
the other hand, the man Of humility is often
timid, inclined to self-depreciation, or else
is hypocrite, assuming an humble part to
deceive and because he has been taught to
look upon humility as a virtue. True, hu-
miity has in it some quality OF virtue, and
is therefore to be preferred to mere boast
fitness, but mock humility, based upon
hypocrisy, is a vice of very mean order.
The boastful man suffers much for his folly.
He is always being Inundated by disclosure
of the holowness of his pretensions. I'm
less he is extremely callous he becomes
more wary as experience teaches him the
consequences of his vanity. The boaster
usually talks without thinking. He is so
filled with vanity that other subjects than
his own personality seldom enter his
thoughts. He even comes to believe what
he says respecting himself, and that is
what makes his rude awakening especially
painful. The world is not at all charitable,
especially to those who have made them
selves offensive in any way, as the boaster
is likely to do, and consequently when
some event occurs showing the hollowness
of his pretensions the friends of the boaster
are sure to call his attention to it. Falstaff
may be taken as the typical boaster. and
the trick played upon him to expose his
cowardice is typical of the kind OF treat
ment to which all boosters are subject when
they have begun to make themselves Of
fensive. Besides that, although the boaster
is usually to some extent self-deceived, his
habits leads him almost insensibly into
downright lying. He is not content with
giving expression to the fancies vanity
creates for him, but to enforce his asser-
tons he tells stories about his accomplish
ments or his prowess that he knows to be
false. This, like all lying, is vice for
which no excuse can be offered. One may
tolerate the mild boaster whose vanity leads
him to fancy that he can do things much
beyond his powers, but there can be no
liberation for those who set themselves out
to deceive. Humility carried to such an
extreme as to amount to hypocrisy is equal
ly reprehensible, for it also is an offense
against truth. This suggests the guide to
right behavior-which is truth. When one
does not allow his vanity to so control his
Judgment as to lead him into boastful ex
aggeration, nor affected humility to shut
out from view his real merits or powers, he
will express to others the truth about him
self and SO escape the evils of sham hu-
mility and of boastfulness. It is desirable
that men should know and recognize their
powers; that they should have faith and
confidence in themselves, but they should
be careful not to deceive themselves in
this matter and equally careful not to be-
little themselves through any false idea OF
modesty. Truth is the only safe guide
truth to ones self as we'll as others-but il
error is to be committed it should be on
the side of true humility rather than on
that of boastfulness.