ing 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 right.*

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

* If any one can convince me that I am wrong in any point of sentiment or practice, I 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. M. Aur. lib. 9. S. 21.

expense of his judgment, and to the mortifica tion of his vanity.

CHAPTER VI.

To be sensible of our false knowledge, a good step to self knowledge.

VI. 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 forgetfulness.

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 should we deal with our un derstandings; look over the furniture of the mind; separate the chaff from the wheat,

which are generally received into it together; and take as much pains to forget what we ought not to have learned, as to retain what we ought not to forget. To read froth and trifles all our life, is the way always to retain a flashy and juvenile turn; and only to contemplate our first, which is generally our worst, knowl. edge, cramps the progress of the understanding, and makes our self survey extremely deficient. In short, would we improve the understanding to the valuable purposes of self knowledge, we must take as much care what books we read, as what company we keep.

"The pains we take in books or arts, which treat of things remote from the use of life, is a busy idleness. If I study, says Montaigne, it is for no other science than what treats of the knowledge of myself, and instructs me how to live and die well."*

It is a comfortless speculation, and a plain proof of the imperfection of the human under. standing, that upon a narrow scrutiny into our furniture, we observe a great many things we think we know, but do not; and many which we do know, but ought not; that a good deal of the knowledge we have been all our lives collecting, is no better than mere ignorance, and some of it worse; to be sensible of which is a very necessary step to self ac. quaintance.*

* Rule of Life, page 82, 90. †See Part I. chap. xiii. fin.

CHAPTER VII.

Self inspection peculiarly necessary upon some particular occasions.

VII. WOULD you know yourself, you must very carefully attend to the frame and emotions of your mind under some extraordi̟nary incidents.

Some sudden accidents which befall you when the mind is most off its guard, will better discover its secret turn and prevailing disposition than much greater events you are prepared to to meet, e. g.

A

1. Consider how you behave under any sudden affronts or provocations from men. fool's wrath is presently known,* i. e. a fool is presently known by his wrath.

If your anger be soon kindled, it is a sign that secret pride lies lurking in the heart; which, like gunpowder, takes fire at every spark of provocation that lights upon it. For what. ever may be owing to a natural temper, it is certain that pride is the chief cause of frequent and wrathful resentments. For pride. and anger are as nearly allied as humility and meekness. Only by pride cometh con

tention. + And a man would not know what

mud lay at the bottom of his heart, if provocation did not stir it up.

Athenodorus the philosopher, by reason of his old age, begged leave to retire from the court of Augustus, which the emperor granted him ; and in his compliments of leave, "Remember" said he, 66 Caesar, whenever you are angry, you say or do nothing before you have distinctly repeated to yourself the four and twenty letters of the alphabet." Whereupon Cæsar catch. ing him by the hand, I have need, says he, of your presence still; and kept him a year longer.*

This is celebrated by the ancients as a rule of excellent wisdom, but a christian may prescribe to himself a much wiser, viz. When you are angry, answer not till you have repeated the first petition of the Lord's prayer. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And our Saviour's comment upon it. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." +

:

It is a just and seasonable thought, that of Marcus Antoninus upon such occasions; "A man misbehaves himself towards me, what is that to me? The action is his; and the will that sets him upon it is his; and therefore let him look to it. The fault and injury belong to him, not to me. As for me, I am in the condi

*

See Plut. Mor. vol. I.

page 238. † Matt. vi. 14, 15.