Imatges de pàgina
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CHAP. IV.

FREQUENT CONVERSE WITH SUPERIORS A HELP TO SELF

KNOWLEDGE.

4. ANOTHER proper means of self-knowledge is, to converse as much as you can with those who are your superiors in real excellence.

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise 1. Their example will not only be your motive to laudable pursuits, but a mirror to your mind; by which you may possibly discern some failings, or deficiencies, or neglects in yourself, which before escaped you. You will see the unreasonableness of your vanity and self-sufficiency, when you observe how much you are surpassed by others in knowledge and goodness. Their proficiency will make your defects the more obvious to yourself: and by the lustre of their virtues you will better see the deformity of your vices; your negligence by their diligence; your pride by their humility; your passion by their meekness; and your folly by their wisdom.

Examples not only move, but teach and direct, much more effectually than precepts; and show us not only that such virtues may be practised, but how; and how lovely they appear when they And therefore, if we cannot have them always before our eyes, we should endeavour to

are.

1 Prov. xiii. 20.

have them always in our mind; and especially that of our great Head and Pattern, who hath set us a perfect example of the most innocent conduct, under the worst and most disadvantageous circumstances of human life 2.

CHAP. V.

OF CULTIVATING SUCH A TEMPER AS WILL BE THE BEST DISPOSITION TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

5. IF a man would know himself, he must with great care cultivate that temper which will best dispose him to receive this knowledge.

Now, as there are no greater hinderances to self-knowledge than pride and obstinacy, so there is nothing more helpful to it than humility and an openness to conviction.

(1) One who is in quest of self-knowledge, must above all things seek humility. And how how near an affinity there is between these two, appears from hence, that they are both acquired the same way. The very means of attaining humility are the properest means for attaining selfacquaintance. By keeping an eye every day upon our faults and wants, we become more humble; and by the same means we become more self-intelligent. By considering how far we fall short of our rule and our duty, and how

2 Qui plenissimè intelligere appetit qualis sit, tales debet aspicere qualis non est; ut in bonorum formâ, metiatur quantum deformis est. Greg.

vastly others exceed us, and especially by a daily and diligent study of the word of God, we come to have meaner thoughts of ourselves; and by the very same means we come to have a better acquaintance with ourselves.

A proud man cannot know himself. Pride is that beam in the eye of his mind, which renders him quite blind to any blemishes there. Hence nothing is a surer sign of self-ignorance than vanity and ostentation.

Indeed, true self-knowledge and humility are so necessarily connected, that they depend upon, and mutually beget, each other. A man that knows himself, knows the worst of himself, and therefore cannot but be humble; and a humble mind is frequently contemplating its own faults and weaknesses, which greatly improves it in self-knowledge: so that self-acquaintance makes a man humble; and humility gives him still a better acquaintance with himself.

(2.) An openness to conviction is no less necessary to self-knowledge than humility.

As nothing is a greater bar to true knowledge than an obstinate stiffness in opinion, and a fear to depart from old notions, which (before we were capable of judging, perhaps) we had long taken up for the truth; so nothing is a greater bar to self-knowledge than a strong aversion to part with those sentiments of ourselves which we have been blindly accustomed to, and to think worse of ourselves than we are wont to do.

And such an unwillingness to retract our sentiments in both cases proceeds from the same cause, viz. a reluctance to self-condemnation.

For he that takes up a new way of thinking, contrary to that which he hath long received, therein condemns himself of having lived in an error; and he that begins to see faults in himself he never saw before, condemns himself of having lived in ignorance and sin. Now this is a most ungrateful business, and what self-flattery can by no means endure.

But such an inflexibility of judgment and hatred of conviction is a very unhappy and hurtful turn of mind: and a man that is resolved never to be in the wrong, is in a fair way never to be in the right.

As infallibility is 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 is willing to retract it. He acts with the same freedom and liberty as before, whoever be his monitor; and it is his own good sense and judgment that still guides him; which shines to great advantage in thus directing him against the bias of vanity and self-opinion: and in thus changing his sentiments, he only acknowledges that he is not (what no man ever was) incapable of being mistaken. In short, it is more merit, and an argument of a more excellent mind, for a man freely to retract when he is in the wrong, than to be overbearing and positive when he is in the right3.

3 Ει τις με ελεγξαι, και παρατησαι μοι, ότι εκ ορθώς υπολαμβάνω η πράσσω, δυναται, χαιρων μεταθησομαι· ζητω γαρ την αληθειαν υφ' ης εδεις πώποτε εβλάβη βλαπτεται δε ο επιμενων επι της εαυτό απατης και ayvolaç. M. Aur. lib. 6. sect. 21. If any one can convince me that I am wrong in any point of sentiment or practice, I

A man then must be willing to know himself, before he can know himself. He must open

his eyes, if he desires to see; yield to evidence and conviction, though it be at the expense of his judgment, and to the mortification of his vanity.

CHAP. VI.

TO BE SENSIBLE OF OUR FALSE KNOWLEDGE A GOOD STEP
TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

6. WOULD you know yourself, take heed and
guard against false knowledge.

See that the light that is within you be not darkness; that your favourite and leading principles be right. Search your furniture, and consider what you have to unlearn; for oftentimes there is as much wisdom in casting off some knowledge which we have, as in acquiring that which we have not: which, perhaps, was what made Themistocles reply, when one offered to teach him the art of memory, That he had much rather he would teach him the art of forgetful

ness.

A scholar that hath been all his life collecting books, will find in his library at last a great deal of rubbish: and, as his taste alters and his judgment improves, he will throw out a great many as trash and lumber, which, it may be, he once valued and paid dear for; and replace them with such as are more solid and useful. Just so

will alter it with all my heart; for it is truth I seek, and that can hurt nobody. It is only persisting in error or ignorance that can hurt us.

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