seemed, out of the slender resources of my own vexed spirit.

But after all, the wonder is, in this mysterious world, not that
there is so much egotism abroad, but that there is so little!
Considering the narrow space, the little cage of bones and skin, in
which our spirit is confined, like a fluttering bird, it often
astonished me to find how much of how many people's thoughts is not
given to themselves, but to their work, their friends, their
families.

The simplest and most practical cure for egotism, after all, is
resolutely to suppress public manifestations of it; and it is best
to overcome it as a matter of good manners, rather than as a matter
of religious principle. One does not want people to be impersonal;
all one desires to feel is that their interest and sympathy is not,
so to speak, tethered by the leg, and only able to hobble in a
small and trodden circle. One does not want people to suppress
their personality, but to be ready to compare it with the
personalities of others, rather than to refer other personalities
to the standard of their own; to be generous and expansive, if
possible, and if that is not possible, or not easy, to be prepared,
at least, to take such deliberate steps as all can take, in the
right direction. We can all force ourselves to express interest in
the tastes and idiosyncrasies of others, we can ask questions, we
can cultivate relations. The one way in which we can all of us
improve, is to commit ourselves to a course of action from which we
shall be ashamed to draw back. Many people who would otherwise
drift into self-regarding ways do this when they marry. They may
marry for egotistical reasons; but once inside the fence, affection
and duty and the amazing experience of having children of their own