le. Self-interest is the seed, of which
meanness is the full-grown plant, and of which social constraint and
slavishness are the final fruits.

THE VICE OF DEFECT.

+Lack of public spirit is meanness.+--The mean man is he who
acknowledges no interest and recognizes no obligation outside the narrow
range of his strictly private concerns. As long as he is comfortable he
will take no steps to relieve the distress of others. If his own
premises are healthy, he will contribute nothing to improve the sanitary
condition of his village or city. As long as his own property is secure
he cares not how many criminals are growing up in the street, how many
are sent to prison, or how they are treated after they come there. He
favors the cheapest schools, the poorest roads, the plainest public
buildings, because he would rather keep his money in his own pocket than
contribute his share to maintain a thoroughly efficient and creditable
public service. He will give nothing he can help giving, do nothing he
can help doing, to make the town he lives in a healthier, happier,
purer, wiser, nobler place. Meanness is the sacrifice of the great
social whole to the individual. It is selfishness, stinginess, and
ingratitude combined. It is the disposition to receive all that society
contributes to the individual, and to give nothing in return. It is a
willingness to appropriate the fruits of labors in which one refuses to
bear a part.

THE VICE OF EXCESS.

+The officious person is ready for any and every kind of public service,
providing he can be at the head of it. There is no end to the work he
will do if he can only have his own way.+--He wants to be prime mover in
every enterprise: to be chairman of the committee; to settle every
question that comes up; to "run" things according to his own ideas. Such
people are often very useful. It is generally wisest not to meddle much
with them. The work may not be done in the best way by these officious
people; but without them a great deal of public work would never be done
at all. The vice, however, seriously impairs one's usefulness. The
officious person is hard to work with. Men refuse to have anything to do
with him. And so he is left to do his work for the most part alone.
Officiousness is, in reality, social ambition; and that again as we saw
resolves itself into sentimentality;--the regard for what we and others
think of ourselves, rather than straightforward devotion to the ends
which