The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-08-12
EGOTISM.

personal possession, quality or attribute
becomes magnified hundredfold in i'm
portance. Egotism is self-appreciation and
self-confidence run to seed. "The personal
pronoun should be the coat of arms of
some persons" An individual who talks
overmuch of himself descends in the ap-
probation of his hearers in proportion to
his self-praise. Boredom is peopled prin-
cipally with egotiots. Egotism is social
sin which the law of good conduct pro-
scribes, and it is an offense which has not
escaped the attention of the moralists.
Pascal ssys that Christian piety annihilates
the egotsm of the heart and worldly polite
ness wells and represses it.
Egotism convinces no one, and the really
meritorious person loses some measure OF
respect by lauding himself. A writer puts
the ease rather bluntly in the statement
that the more you speak of yourself the
more likely you are to lie. 1t is much bet
ter to have others sound your praises than
to sound them yourself. A shrewd OBJ
server of human foibles goes so far as to
say that man never speaks of himself
without loss. ellis accusations against
himself are always believed; his praises
never The same idea has been expressed
in another form: eff | condemn myself,
more is believed than is expressed; if
praise myself, much less" Pascal bears
witness against self-laudation. ''Do you
wish men to speak we'll of you? Then
never speak we'll of yourself"
Overwhelming self-conceit cannot be
tolerated even among geniuses. 1t has
dimmed the lustre of famous names.
Bonaparte was the incarnation of egotism,
and yet this master egotist had the hardi-
hood to say, and truthfully, that the greatest
and humility, (which 60 great way in
the character of the most exalted princes"
To the same purport, but from more sincere
and credible witnesses, is the declaration of
Addison, that reasonable modesty sets
Off ''every great talent which man can
be possessed of; it heightens all the great
virtues which it accompanies" and the
saying of Bruyere, that "modesty is to
merit what shades are to the figures of a
picture; it gives strength and heightening."
There are certain situations in which q
man is expected to be something of an
egotist. The photographs of celebrated
personages, the personal narratives of ex-
plorers and discoveries, all letters passing
in social correspondence and the talk of
lovers are necessarily and inoffensively
egotstic. Much of the charm of the story
of Robinson Crusoe, for instance, is due
to the Frequency with which the rs are
brought into requisition. 1t places the
writer in the most intimate relations with
the reader. The same thing may be said
of the autobiography of Franklin and of
many others. Sydney Smith declared in q
letter to a friend: 81 shall never apollo
gize to you for egotism. think very few
men writing to their friends have enough
of it, Children, as a rule, are innocent
and very interesting cyclists, given to
boasting about their little adventures and
exploits. There arrives stage, however,
when this childish egotism should be
checked. Much of the repellent egotism
INDUCED in by adults is attributable to the
failure of parents to check the egotistical
tendency in childhood.
Unjust be confessed that the boosters and
the braggarts often forge ahead rapidly,
and precede or displace the shrinking, re-
served and retiring persons who are slow in
trumpeting their own abilities and merits.
1t is with self-praise much as it is with
calumny. If persistently INDUCED, some
of it will be believed. This explains the
acceptance of some egotists at their own
valuation; but the glory of the inflated
self-fatterers is usually of short duration.
Shakespeare speaks of these boosters in
this wise: ''Who knows himself brag.
CART let him fear this for it will come to
pass that every braggart shall be found an
ass
Egotism has its root in selfishness, one Of
the meanest, the most despicable Of weak
nesses. From the mind of the confirmed
egotist every thought save the thought oil
himself is excluded. Egotism is likely tc
run into morbid self-love, a nauseous
self-idolatry. The hopeless egotist is apt
to be the butt Of ridicule. "When man
has no longer any conception of excellen-
cies above his own, his voyage is done, he
is dead-dead in trespasses and the sin OF
hlea p,oya1 vanifv >,