..续本文上一页figure reflected in the shop window as we pass engenders a feeling of warm satisfaction. Smart clothes, we believe, do justice to our carriage. We may not be so tall as that person over yonder, but we have a more distinguished look. No one would pick out any one of them in a crowd, but all can see we are different. Crude, isn”t it

　　 But that is the way Conceit affects us, and its crudity is indeed shocking when self-analysis brings us face to face with it. Inspired by a consciousness of a desire for Truth, our minds turn the searchlight of enquiry inwards upon our own characters, and then there dawns the realization that Conceit has been part of us for as long as we remember. Formerly, we would have angrily denied the charge of being conceited. Now we see that it is well founded. Our "apartness," our treasured "inpiduality," is plainly one of its aspects.

　　Conceit has grown without its presence being suspected, and an even more dangerous and disgusting shoot has sprung up beside it. This is Boastfulness — Self-Esteem”s oral manifestation. One of our national conventions is the taboo on bragging, and the idea of voicing a plain, undisguised boast would shock us as much as it would disgust the conventional listener. a very admirable convention too — but it by no means eliminates Boastfulness, for there are other ways of boasting, and as long as the desire to call attention to oneself exists, that particular ramification of Pride is a danger. We can get others to boast for us. We can also impress them (particulary our relations) that they sing our praises to others. In this way we gain more than were it to come from ourselves, and run no risk of its incurring disagreeable criticism. We can seek publicity and, once gained, declaim it. We may artfully bring a conversation round to a point at which we "modestly" have to admit to something we are really proud of. It takes a certain amount of courage to probe one”s own secret heart and bring to light some of the many ways in which we who sincerely believe ourselves to be guiltless can actually indulge in Boastfulness. It is one of the most persistent roots of the weed of Pride, and the most dangerous because so frequently overlooked.

　　There are two kinds of Ambition. There is Wrong Ambition, and Right Ambition. One is based on Self-Esteem; the other is free of any taint of it. Wrong Ambition is the desire to excel or succeed in order to enhance one”s standing — one”s reputation. It is the urge to achieve with the object of "putting the other chap”s eye out!" In its more acceptable, and therefore more insidious aspect, it is the will to gain admiration and respect — to become, in fact, a worldly "success," which nearly always means a financial success. Confident of our great worth, we cannot be satisfied until repeated success have called the attention of others to it. We feel that wealth is a concrete recognition of it.

　　Right Ambition, on the other hand, is above itself. It is the will to succeed, not for the gratification of self-esteem, but to further achievement for its own sake. The painter who strives to express adequately the idea inspiring him — the poet who seeks to express an emotion as it has never been expressed — the craftsman ever intent on bettering his achievement — all are followers of Right Ambition. Their "selves" are forgotten. They work as instruments, and they feel that in the expression of their art is little personal, but rather a universal power whose tools they are. Noblest ambition of all is the desire to achieve an objective of disinterested service to one”s fellow creatures, whether human or animal. it is sometimes gratifying to learn how many of us have this objective.

　　Jealousy might be defined as the resentment felt against another for competing at the same …

《What Can be Done About Conceit

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