"Conceit spoils many an excellency. Some persons are so proud of their goodness, or of their attainments, or of their position, or of their character, or of their family, that they become offensive to many who would otherwise be won by their merit. Pride mars, blights, and withers whatever it touches. It begets assumptions that are very belittling as well as hard to bear. A man weakens his influence and retards his personal and public interests by giving it full control. Its exhibition may be natural; but noble manhood, high moral character, regard to the feelings of others and Christianity all demand its suppression." Humility JUNE 12 "What hypocrites we seem to be, whenever we talk of ourselves! Our words sound so humble, while our hearts are so proud." _Guesses at Truth_, edited by Archdeacon HARE. "By despising himself too much a man comes to be worthy of his own contempt." _Amiel's Journal._ "Just as criticism alone ministers to pride and then to death, so creation, even of the smallest kind, ministers to humility. And that stands to reason: the slightest act of shaping instantly opens before you an ever-expanding sea, and the vision of the infinite is the death of vanity and pride." _The Gospel of Joy_, STOPFORD BROOKE. "Humility is the hall-mark of wisdom." JEREMY COLLIER. Egotism JUNE 13 "We ought to have this measure of charity for egotistical people--a willingness to suppose that they actually believe themselves to be what they assume to be. It is quite possible for a person to be in such a fog of misapprehension that everything about him--his little world, his personal interest--will loom abnormally large. When the fog is dispelled, he will see things as they are, and estimate them and himself accordingly. "Egotism of this kind is pardonable; and there is a great deal of it which is peculiar to the mists and strange refractions of youth. When the sun of a clearer and larger knowledge chases away the fog, a right-minded young person emerges from this egotistical, too self-conscious period of his life, and finds a new adjustment for himself in the great and serious world." "He who is always enquiring what people will say, will never give them opportunity to say anything great about him." "Reputation is in itself only a farthing candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out; but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit." LOWELL. The Code of Society JUNE 14 "'Freedom' is not the power to do what we like, but to be what we ought to be." CHARLES GORE. "There is no commoner danger than that of accepting the code of the society in which you live as the rule of right."