Self Culture; An Essay on Individuality (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. KNOW THYSELF. We can accomplish very little in this life, nor can we make much progress toward the attainment of a future existence, until we come into a realization of our own true worth. Did you ever earnestly meditate upon the grandeur of each human individuality? Very few consider this. The answer from the majority to the question, "What is to be our ultimate attainment"? is, "A greater or less degree of perfection." And yet these same people make little apparent effort to attain to the slightest degree of perfection. The drunkard, in the gutter, will perhaps make the same answer; the person standing, as it were, on a high pinnacle, will look down with scorn at his fallen brother groveling in the mire, while he himself is guilty of quite as great intemperance. For he devours all manner of food, in quantity sufficient for two, keepslate hours, and is ready, at the beck and call of friends to rush all over the country, in search of "a good time," with never a thought of judicious moderation. Which is the more degraded? To realize our true worth to the fullest extent we must be temperate in all things. Few imagine the possibilities which await us when we come into the realization of what we really are. Every living mortal has an absolute right to develop the "ego" that is within him to the stage of perfection; but, first of all, we must hold ourselves in proper esteem. The work lies entirely with each one. We can accomplish much by introspection, and this should be systematically and conscientiously practiced. Introspection is looking within?is beholding and studying ourselves. On the other hand, the experience which we gain from associating with others is most valuable; it helps us to determine, by comparison, our weak and strong traits, and so t...