VIII

EGOTISM





I had an experience the other day, very disagreeable but most
wholesome, which held up for a moment a mirror to my life and
character. I suppose that, at least once in his life, every one has
known what it is, in some corridor or stairway, to see a figure
advancing towards him, and then to discover with a shock of
surprise that he has been advancing to a mirror, and that the
stranger is himself. This happened to me some short while ago, and
I was by no means favourably impressed by what I saw!

Well, the other day I was conducting an argument with an irascible
man. His temper suddenly boiled over, and he said several personal
things to me, of which I did not at once recognize the truth; but I
have since considered the criticisms, and have decided that they
are mainly true, heightened perhaps by a little tinge of temper.

I am sorry my friend said the things, because it is difficult to
meet, on cordial terms, a man whom one knows to hold an
unfavourable opinion of oneself. But in one way I am glad he said
them, because I do not think I could in any other manner have
discerned the truth. If a friend had said them without anger, he
would no doubt have so gilded the pill that it would have seemed
rather a precious ornament than a bitter remedy.