The Normal Record. December 1903

              THE  NORMAL   RECORD
told of the Marshal Cativat, who, upou submitting a report of the battle of Marsaglia at
which he had distinguished himself in no
slight degree, completely forgot to mention
his own pait in the affair; whereupon someone
ingenuously remarked: "Was the Marshall
himself  not present?"
A common fallacy, I think, is the statemeut
that the world takes a man at his own estimation. The world is not so credulous or so
blind to defects iu one person and to true vir
tue iu another. Whatever Carlyle may say of
the "gullibility" of society, the world is a
criterion of all and he who shines simply by
reflected lustre will not. always be successful
in offering it as a substitute for the real effulgence. Lowell has humorously lemarked, in
this connection, that "many a light hailed by
too careless observers as a fixed star, has
proved to be only a short lived lantern at the
tail of a newspaper kite." How careful we
should be, therefore, never to parade our virtues and our accomplishments, or, through
an excess of self confidence, to allow ourselves
to become too self-appreciative. "However
good you may be, " says Ruskin, "you have
faults; however dull yon may be you can find
out what they are: and however slight they
may be, you had better make some—not too
painful but patient — effort to overcome them.''
Modesty is a most attractive quality. It is,
indeed, a natural accomplishment but it is
also a duty which wo owe to ourselves aud to
others as well. It is not by appearing satis-
fled with our own acts and characters but in
having others satisfied with them that we shall
attain distinction and develop morally aud intellectually. No one "wears" so well as the
person who can lose himself in the iuterests
of others, and, we are told, "to make others
satisfied with themselves, is the true means of
having them satisfied with us."
There is a fable of Aesop's which, though
so old that it must be familiar to all students
of literature, illustrates very graphically the
idea which I have endeavored to present. I
shall, therefore, take the liberty of repeating
it here without apology.
A Fox who was over-wise in his own conceit
and who never lost an opportunity to triumph
if possible, over other- animals inferior to him
in strength, cuuning or agility, once challenged a Crab to a race. The Crab had a just
appreciation of the inequality of such a competition hut, though modest, indeed, in the
estimate of his own capabilities, he   possessed
a large share of natural wit and therefore,
raised no objection to the suggestion, accepting it apparently with alacrity.
"You," said the Fox, magnanimously,
"are so much slower than 1 that I shall give
you a head statt."
"Indeed," answered tbeJjCrab with dignity,
"I shall agree to uo such terms. We shall
start at the same time."
"Very well," said the Fox with a contemptuous flick of his tail, "it really makes no
difference for I shall win. On the mark —
set—go!" and off be went.
Gut the Crab, who had his wits about him
had no sooner heard the signal than he grasped
tbe thick, bushy tail of his rival and, holding
on firmly, traveled with the Fox, reaching the
goal at the same instant. The Fox, all unconscious of the circumstance, waited for the
Crab to appearand was about to stroll leisurely back in search of him when a disgusted
voice behiud called out: "Well, here you are
at last!" And, turning around much to his
chagrin, he beheld the Crab. "You were long
enough in getting here," said the latter, unsparingly, and the Fox, too greatly humiliated
to reply, skulked away in acknowledgement
of his defeat.
In dilating upon modesty versus egotism,
I have touched upon only one phase of the
subject, for in all its parts it is a comprehensive one. Next to a moderate estimate of
one's capabilities, there is nothing more refreshing than modest behavior- Few of us,
perhaps, have the right to elect ourselves to
the office of criterions but we all have our
ideals aud, while we may uot be conscious of
our own failings, we are able to detect, with
some degree of accuracy, those of our neighbors. There are always, of course, two sides
to a question and we have a profound contempt for false modesty but few of us admire
absence of modesty. There will ever be people
in the world to typify the exaggerated form
of must undesirable qualities aud, while lack
of modesty in some, may pass for piquancy or
vivacity, in others it is a less desirable quality
— boldness. Modesty in behavior and modesty in dress are inseparable. They are the
unmrstakable emblems of refinement and
natural culture. Let us, then, like Lincoln,
strive to be distinguished not by outer
veneering but by a grace higher than that of
outer person and infinitely deeper than mere
breeding.