Article January 16, 1932 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Correspondent, Lewis E. Lawes, F. C. Hoggarth, William Carter

[From a Correspondent, in the Times, London, England]

A man's honesty comes to its most acute testing not in his relation to others, but in his dealings with himself. Many who maintain as if by nature a scrupulous rectitude in all their business and social relations habitually fail in candor to themselves. The results are often disastrous, and not less because their source is often unrecognized....

One cause of the prevalent misconception of self arises from the fact that we note the faults of others, not without exaggeration, and then compare these not with our own faults, which we ignore, but with our virtues, and thus decide entirely in our own favor, thus encouraging a self-satisfaction which robs us of any chance of moral progress. Through this dishonesty with ourselves we lose all the joy that comes to those who, recognizing their deficiencies and being penitent for their misdoings, make disciplined efforts to acquire higher qualities of life and to achieve greater service to others. The worst feature of this self-delusion is not that we are certain to succeed in it, but that we become unable to see the good in others and end in contempt of all that is true and pure in human life.

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