ecessary facts
of life, and a sane confidence that, whatever comes, we shall be
provided with the means of meeting it. This confidence is, in itself,
one of the greatest sources of intelligent endurance.

VI

_Self-Consciousness_

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS may be truly defined as a person's inability to get
out of his own way. There are, however, some people who are so entirely
and absolutely self-conscious that everything they do, even though it
may appear spontaneous and ingenuous, is observed and admired and
approved of by themselves,--indeed they are supported and sustained by
their self-consciousness. They are so completely in bondage to
themselves that they have no glimpse of the possibility of freedom, and
therefore this bondage is pleasant to them.

With these people we have, at present, nothing to do; it is only those
who have begun to realize their bondage as such, or who suffer from it,
that can take any steps toward freedom. The self-satisfied slaves must
stay in prison until they see where they are--and it is curious and sad
to see them rejoicing in bondage and miscalling it freedom. It makes
one long to see them struck by an emergency, bringing a flash of inner
light which is often the beginning of an entire change of state.
Sometimes the enlightenment comes through one kind of circumstance,
sometimes through another; but, if the glimpse of clearer sight it
brings is taken advantage of, it will be followed by a time of groping
in the dark, and always by more or less suffering. When, however, we
know that we are in the dark, there is hope of our coming to the light;
and suffering is nothing whatever after it is over and has brought its
good results.

If we were to take away the prop of self-approval entirely and
immediately from any one of the habitually self-satisfied people, the
probable result would be an entire nervous collapse, or even a painful
form of insanity; and, in all changes of state from bondage to freedom,
the process is and must be exceedingly slow. No one ever strengthened
his character with a wrench of impatience, although we are often given
the opportunity for a firm and immediate use of the will which leaves
lasting strength behind it. For the main growth of our lives, however,
we must be steadily patient, content to aim in the true direction day
by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. If we fall, we must pick
ourselves up and go right on,--not stop to be discouraged for one
inst