"The fit of low spirits which comes to us when we find ourselves overtaken in a fault, though we flatter ourselves to reckon it a certain sign of penitence, and a set-off to the sin itself which God will surely take into account, is often nothing more than vexation and annoyance with ourselves, that, after all our good resolutions and attempts at reformation, we have broken down again." _The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND. "And be you sure that sorrow without resolute effort at amendment is one of the most contemptible of all human frailties; deserving to be despised by men, and certain to be rejected by God." Bishop TEMPLE. Morbid Introspectiveness OCTOBER 16 "Plainly there is one danger in all self-discipline which has to be most carefully watched and guarded against, that, namely, of valuing the means at the expense of the end, and so falling into either self-righteousness or formalism, and very probably into uncharitableness also. If we esteem our obedience to rule, and self-imposed restraints, for their own sake, we effectually destroy their power to train and elevate. I suppose this is the real mistake of a false asceticism, which sees the merit rather in the amount of discipline undergone than in the character and self-conquest to be gained by it." Bishop WALSHAM HOW. "... It is a clear view of higher motives, which at once reveals and defeats our meaner impulses; which assists the discipline of _proper_ self-searching, by making it healthy and hopeful; and resists any habit of morbid introspectiveness with its fatal tendency to paralyse activity of character." Canon KNOX LITTLE. Introspection OCTOBER 17 "Beware of despairing about yourself." ST. AUGUSTINE. "Any man who is good for anything, if he is always thinking about himself, will come to think himself good for nothing very soon. It is only a fop or a fool who can bear to look at himself all day long, without disgust. And so the first thing for a man to do, who wants to use his best powers at their best, is to get rid of self-consciousness, to stop thinking about himself and how he is working, altogether." PHILLIPS BROOKS. "On somehow. To go back Were to lose all." TENNYSON. Our True Selves and Our Traditional Selves OCTOBER 18