“Love thyself last; and thou shalt grow inspirit
To see, to hear, to know, and understand.
The message of the stars, lo! Thou shalt hear it,
And all God’s joys shall be at thy command.
“Love thyself last. The world shall be made better.
By thee, if this brief motto forms thy creed.
Go follow it in spirit and in letter,
This is the Christ religion which men need.”
One of the evils of self love is the tendency to talk about one’s self. It seems a harmless habit to fall into, but in reality it is most unfortunate. Talking about one’s self is always perilous. It were safer to exclude the theme altogether from the list of topics for conversation. There may be matters referring to one’s self that it shall sometimes seem necessary to discuss. They may be matters of general interest about which other people will insist on talking. But there is a way of speaking of such things without bringing in the personal element. At least, if one’s own part in the affair or the achievement must be brought out, it were better that others should do it, and not the participant.
But sometimes people do not know of the important part we have taken in the good work that has been done. They may even be giving the credit to others, altogether unaware that is was our wisdom which inspired the thought, our quick energy which wrought it out into achievement, or our deft hands to which the final success was due. It sees to us only just and right that the truth should be know, and there is only one way to have it made known, – we must tell our friends of our important part in the affair.
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