The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1914-10-15
"OURSEL YES.

A toast sometimes offered in spirit of
humor, but always responded to with a
feeling of sly satisfaction, is yourselves. :"
Although selfishness in others is detested,
no one is wholly without it. Some men who
have done much for humanity have been
intensely selfish, as, for example, Benjamin
Franklin. All through his writings, and
his acts as we'll, can be seen the calculating
spirit, as to the cost of every effort and its
relation to the personal return. Even his
maxims smack of the commercial spirit,
which is necessarily but not unworthily
founded upon selfishness, for the object of
all trade is to get what one wants for what
one does not want, and both parties thereto
may be entirely selfish without doing any
injustice one to the other. On the subject
of self-love Franklin says: "That man
alone loves himself rightly who procures the
greatest possible good to himself through
the whole of his existence, and 80 pursues
pleasure as not to give for it more than it
is worth" The practical wisdom of this
saying completely overshadows its moral
character. Too many men love themselves
so much in their youth that they are in
capable Of enjoyment in their later years.
They abuse their health and prepare them
.
Others pay too dearly for their enjoyments,
not only in health, but in money. They
love themselves, but not wisely, and estab-
the results of which keep them from pro-
motion and limit their earning powers. AS
Franklin would say, they have paid too
dear for their whistle. There is some ad-
vantage in considering pleasures, as Frank
lin
standpoint. Men who cannot be moved by
an appeal to their moral sense may listen
when their guide deals with pleasures as a
matter of dollars and cents, or as when a
teacher as observing as Franklin points out
to them that the excessive indulgence of
pleasure is sure to limit ones power or en-
joyment. Self-love is not in itself vice.
Hazlitt says "The secret of our self-love
is just the same as that of our liberality
and candor. We prefer ourselves to others
only because We have more intimate con-
seriousness and confirmed opinion of our
own claims and merits than of any other
PERSONS 1t is a curious fact that artists
often develop characteristic fault of draw
ing which, when traced to its source, is
found to be fault Of the family face. 1t
becomes so familiar to them that they do not
uOtiCe IL DIS d ldull, OUT Try TO square all
things in nature by that which they have
known at home and with which they are
more familiar than with anything outside.
Self-love sets up the individual in the same
way as kind of standard by which other
people are measured. In condemning a
certain act one is quite likely to say, with
unconscious self-approval. Il would not
dream of doing such thing" 1t is, how
ever, only when self-love is carried to such
an extreme that it is allowed to exercise
itself at the expense of the happiness of
others that it becomes detestable vice. 1t
cannot, and indeed should not, be eliminat-
ed, but it should be associated with love for
ones fellow beings. Thus tempered and
limited, it is an incentive to good deeds.
No man has come to true greatness who
has not felt in some degree that his life be-
longs to his race and that what God gives
him he gives him for mankind" There is
supreme satisfaction to be found in doing
good to others; it is satisfaction as per-
sonal as that which comes of utter selfish
ness, but it differs from selfshness in that
it is born of love of self combined with love
of others. 1t is wise to love ones self, but
understandingly and in moderation, for
then the love can only be bestowed upon a
worthy object, and such love is not incom-
patable with regard to others.