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all mankind; fome of whom may have better opportunities of knowing him, especially at certain feasons, than he has of knowing himself; as they never look thro the false medium of felf-flattery.

CHA P. IV.

Frequent Converfe with Superiors a Help to

IV.

A

Self Knowledge.

NOTHER proper means of SelfKnowledge, is to converfe, as much as you can, with thofe who are your Superiors in real excellence.

He that walketh with wife men fhall be wife *.

Their

Nothing can be a greater inftance of wisdom and humanity, than for a man to bear filently the follies and revilings of an enemy; taking as much care not to provoke him, as a mariner would use to fail by a dangerous rock.

It is very humane and a manifeft token of a nature truly generous, to forgive the affronts of an enemy, at a time when you have a fair opportunity to revenge them.

Let us carefully obferve thofe good qualities wherein our enemies excel us: and let us endeavour to furpafs them, by avoiding all manner of evil and by imitating what is excellent in them. Plut. Mor. Vol. i. pag. 265; et feq.

* Prov. xiii. 20.

T 3

Their example will not only be a motive to laudable pursuits, but a mirrour to your mind; by which you may poffibly difcern fome deficiencies in yourself, which were before unnoticed. You will fee the unreasonableness of your vanity, when you obferve how much you are furpaffed by others in knowledge and goodness. By the luftre of their virtues, you will better fee the deformity of your vices; your negligence, by their affiduity; your pride, by their humility; your paffion, by their meekness; and your folly, by their wisdom.

Examples not only move, but teach and direct, much more than precepts; and fhow us not only that fuch virtues may be practised, but in what manner. If we cannot have them always before our eyes, we fhould endeavour to have them conftantly in our mind; and especially that of our great Head and Pattern, who hath fet us a perfect example of the most irreproachable conduct, under the worst and most disadvantageous circumftances of human life (t).

СНА Р.

(t) Qui pleniffimè intelligere appetit qualis fit, tales debet afpicere qualis non cft; ut in bonorum formâ, metiatur quantum deformis eft. Greg.

CHA P. V.

Of cultivating fuch a Temper as will be the beft Difpofition to Self-Knowledge.

I

V. Fa man would know himfelf, he muft, with great care, cultivate that temper which will beft difpofe him to receive this Knowledge.

Now, as there are no greater hindrances to Self-Knowledge than pride and obftinacy; fo there is nothing more helpful to it, than humility and an openness to con

viction.

LITY.

1. One who is in queft of Self-Knowledge, muft, above all things, feek HUMIAnd how near an affinity there is between these two appears from hence, that they are both acquired the fame way. The very means of attaining Humility are the propereft methods for attaining Self-acquaintance. By daily keeping an eye upon our wants and errors we become more humble; and by the fame means we become more felf-intelligent. By confidering how defective we are in point of duty, and especially by a diligent ftudy of the word of God, we entertain meaner thoughts of ourselves; and

hence

hence we come to have a better acquaintance with ourselves.

A proud man cannot know himself : pride is that beam in the eye of the mind, which renders him infenfible to any blemishes there. Confequently, nothing is a more certain fign of self-ignorance, than vanity and oftentation.

Indeed true Self-Knowledge and humility are fo neceffarily connected, that they depend upon, and are mutually productive of each other. A man that knows himself, difcerns the worft of himself, and therefore cannot but be humble; and an humble mind frequently contemplates its own faults and weaknesses, which greatly improves it in Self-Knowledge.

(2.) An openness to conviction is no less neceffary to Self-Knowledge than humility.

As nothing is a greater impediment to true Knowledge than obftinacy of opinion, and a fear to depart from old notions, which (perhaps before we were capable of judging) we had long taken up for truth; fo nothing is a greater bar to Self-Knowledge, than a ftrong averfion to part with those sentiments of ourselves, to which we have been blindly accustomed.

Such

Such an unwillingness to retract our fentiments, in both cafes, proceeds from the fame caufe, viz. a reluctance, to felf-condemnation. For he that affumes a new way of thinking, contrary to that which he hath long received, therein condemns himself for having lived in an error; and he that begins to fee his own faults condemns himfelf for having lived in fin and ignorance. This is a most ungrateful business, and what felf-flattery can by no means endure.

An inflexibility of judgment, an hatred of conviction, is a very unhappy and hurtful turn of mind. And a man, that is refolved never to be in the wrong, will probably never be in the right.

Infallibility being no privilege of the human nature, it is no diminution to a man's good sense or judgment to be found in an error, provided he be willing to retract it; and it is his own good sense and judgment that conftantly guides him, which fhines to great advantage in thus directing him against the biafs of vanity and felfopinion. And in thus changing his fentiments, he only acknowledges that he is not [what no man ever was] incapable of being mistaken. In fhort, it is an argument

of

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