Know thyself;

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VOL. IV NEW YORK, APRIL 15, 1921 No. 4
"Know Thyself"
IN these latter days we hear many voices
raised to extol the merits of self-con­fidence.
Self-confidence, we are told, is
indispensable; it is the quality which ex­pands
the chest, raises the head, enables a
man to look his neighbor straight in the
eye, to persevere in his aims, to surmount
obstacles; in short, to achieve.
And yet, what do the biographies of
great men tell us? In the circle of our
own observation, what is our experience?
We all know that many who have been
acclaimed as the great ones of the earth
have been the most modest of men in es­timating
their own performance. Far from
being sure of themselves, they have pro­ceeded
cautiously, often in fear and trem­bling,
and with torturing doubts of the
ultimate result. Their faith, not in them­selves,
but in the goal they were striving
for, upheld them.
Who can fathom the depths of discour­agement
that must have filled the heart of
Washington at Valley Forge? Lincoln,
too, even while pursuing an undeviating
course, was harassed and racked in soul by
the cruel responsibilities of his position.
If the truth were known, many great
and successful men might confess to a
sense of defeat—so slight, in their eyes,
has appeared their actual accomplishment
in comparison with the loftier ideal they
had striven, with undaunted courage, to
realize.
On the other hand, it has passed into a
proverb that "fools rush in where angels
fear to tread." There is no one who has
not seen the cocksure, complacent blun­derer
wreaking havoc, or drawing upon
himself the ridicule of his fellows, all in
sublime and fatuous unawareness of his
own limitations. In his case, his self-confidence
is his undoing.
Self-confidence, it must be admitted, is
an unsafe guide. Like many another de­sirable
quality, it is a good servant, but a
bad master. Without the light of self-knowledge
it stumbles in the dark.
"Know thyself" is the beginning of all
wisdom. To say that it is not easy of at­tainment
is as true as to concede once for
all that nothing worth doing or having is
easy. It calls for a constant and search­ing
examination into the sources of one's
own weakness and strength—an exercise
of judgment which is just as necessary for
the man who errs through over-confidence
as for him who is prone to disparage him­self
unduly. It does not by any means
imply an excess of self-consciousness, a
priggish attitude, or a morbid introspec­tion.
It is a purely intellectual process.
Nothing surely could be more to a man's
interest and advantage than this deliberate