It is scarcely necessary to say much about the advantage of a man
knowing himself for himself. To get at the truth of any history is
good; but a man's own history--when he reads that truly, and,
without a mean and over-solicitous introspection, knows what he is
about and what he has been about, it is a Bible to him. "And David
said unto Nathan, I have sinned before the Lord." David knew the
truth about himself. But truth to oneself is not merely truth about
oneself. It consists in maintaining an openness and justness of
soul which brings a man into relation with all truth. For this, all
the senses, if you might so call them, of the soul must be
uninjured--that is, the affections and the perceptions must be just.
For a man to speak the truth to himself comprehends all goodness;
and for us mortals can only be an aim.

2. Truth to mankind in general. This is a matter which, as I read
it, concerns only the higher natures. Suffice it to say, that the
withholding large truths from the world may be a betrayal of the
greatest trust.

3. Truth in social relations. Under this head come the practices
of making speech vary according to the person spoken to; of
pretending to agree with the world when you do not; of not acting
according to what is your deliberate and well-advised opinion
because some mischief may be made of it by persons whose judgment in
this matter you do not respect; of maintaining a wrong course for
the sake of consistency; of encouraging the show of intimacy with
those whom you never can be intimate with; and many things of the
same kind. These practices have elements of charity and prudence as
well as fear and meanness in them. Let those parts which correspond