said of the acquirement of goodwill. In remedying the deficiences of the
heart and character, as in remedying the deficiences of mere knowledge,
the brain is the sole possible instrument, and the best results will be
obtained by using it regularly and scientifically, according to an
arranged method. Why, therefore, if a man be proud of method in
improving his knowledge, should he see something ridiculous in a
deliberate plan for improving his heart--the affair of his heart being
immensely more important, more urgent and more difficult? The reader who
has found even one good answer to the above question, need read no more
of this book, for he will have confounded me and it.





EIGHT

THE FEAST OF ST. FRIEND


The consequences of the social self-discipline which I have outlined
will be various. A fairly early result will be the gradual decline, and
ultimately the death, of the superior person in oneself. It is true
that the superior person in oneself has nine lives, and is capable of
rising from the dead after even the most fatal blows. But, at worst,
the superior person--(and who among us does not shelter that sinister
inhabitant in his soul?)--will have a very poor time in the soul of him
who steadily practises the imaginative understanding of other people.
In the first place, the mere exercise of the imagination on others
absolutely scotches egotism as long as it lasts, and leaves it weakened