vital in the early years, it is in the avoidance of those unnecessary
enmities which arrogance brings in its train.

It might be supposed that middle-age was preaching to youth on a sin it
had outlived. That is not the case. Unfortunately, arrogance is not
confined to any period of life. But in early age it is a tendency at
once most easy to forgive and to cure. Carried into later years, with no
perception of the fault, it becomes incurable. Worse than that, it
usually turns its possessor into a mixture of bore and fool.

Wrapped up in the mantle of his own self-esteem, the sufferer fails to
catch the drift of sentiment round him, or to put himself in touch with
the opinions of others. His chair in any room is soon surrounded by
vacant seats or by patient sufferers. The vice has, in fact, turned
inwards, and corroded the mentality. Far better the enemies and the
mistakes of youth than this final assault on the fortress of inner calm
and happiness within the mind.

The arrogant man can neither be friends with others nor, what is worse
still, be friends with himself. The intense concentration on self which
the mental habit brings not only disturbs any rational judgment of the
values of the outer world, but poisons all sanity, calm, and happiness
at the very source of being. It is hard to shed arrogance. It is more
difficult to be humble. It is worth while to make the attempt.



VIII