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TAE ADVANTAGES
OF
HUMILITY
[SECT.
I11,
dimensions
of pride,
lest
thou
render
all
the comforts of
life
tasteless for
want of
some
little punctilio
of
honour
which the world
will
not
pay thee.
Look upon
thyself
as
a weak
mortal,
as
a
creature
capable
of
mistake and
folly
;
this
thought
will
keep the avenues
of
thy
soul
ever
free
and open for
the counsels and warnings
of
thy
friends,
and
make
a kind
and
faithful
admonition
as
welcome
as a
word
of
vain applause. And
even when
enemies
reproach
thee,
thou wilt
be
suspicious
of
thy-
self
whether thou hast
not
deserved the
reproach
:
Thou
wilt make'
a fresh
scrutiny into
thy
own
heart, and
en-
quire
there
in
secret, what reál
truth
may be mingled
with the unjust revilings
of
men
:
And thus thou
wilt
be
powerfully awakened
to subdue
every
vice,
to
abandon
every
folly
that
tarnishes
thy
character,
and make
use
of
the
rough language
of
a
malicious world to
burnish
thy
virtues
and to keep
them ever shining.
V.
The
lower esteem
we
have
of
ourselves, the
more
easily
shall
we
be
pleased
with
persons and
things
round
about
us
:
We
shall be more unmoved
at
the little acci-
dents
of
life which
may
happen
to cross
our
humour,
and
we shall
rather pity
than terrify
those
who
chance
to
displease
us
where
the
will was
not
in it.
What
is
it that
fires
our
resentment at
every
little
mistake
or
supposed
mistake
of
those
that attend
on
us
?
What
is
it rouses
our
angry
passions
at
every
real
or
fancied
miscarriage
of
those with whom
we
converse
?
What
is
the spring
of
all
this
tumult
of
soul,
this inward disturbance,
but
the
vain
and exalted
idea
which
we
have conceived
of
ourselves
?
As
though
we
must
be
exempted
from the common
laws
and incidents of
our
frail and
mortal state
?
Let
us
colour
over
our
guilt
with
the kindest
salvos yet
it
is
a certain
truth,
pride and
passion
are near
a
-kin,
and
they
are
Most
times
joined together
in
the
temper
of
men and
in
the
conduct of life:
Passion
and pride are
thus
united
in
the
descriptions
of
sin
and
in
the rules
of
duty
both
in
the books
of
morality and
in
the language
of
scripture.
Prov..
xxi. 24.
"
Proud
and haughty scorner
is his name, who
dealeth
in
proud wrath."
Prov.
xüi.
lo.
Only
by
pride cometh contention." Índulge
the
one
and
you,
support
the other Subdue the one and the
-other
is
in
a
great
measure prevented or
suppressed.
Indeed
_
man
will
much
sooner
confess
his
passion