There we
encounter the difficulties, trials, and temptations which,
according as we deal with them, give a colour to our entire after-
life; and there, too, we become subject to the great discipline of
suffering, from which we learn far more than from the safe
seclusion of the study or the cloister.
Contact with others is also requisite to enable a man to know
himself. It is only by mixing freely in the world that one can
form a proper estimate of his own capacity. Without such
experience, one is apt to become conceited, puffed-up, and
arrogant; at all events, he will remain ignorant of himself,
though he may heretofore have enjoyed no other company.
Swift once said: "It is an uncontroverted truth, that no man ever
made an ill-figure who understood his own talents, nor a good one
who mistook them." Many persons, however, are readier to take
measure of the capacity of others than of themselves. "Bring him
to me," said a certain Dr. Tronchin, of Geneva, speaking of
Rousseau--"Bring him to me, that I may see whether he has got
anything in him!"--the probability being that Rousseau, who knew
himself better, was much more likely to take measure of Tronchin
than Tronchin was to take measure of him.
A due amount of self-knowledge is, therefore, necessary for those
who would BE anything or DO anything in the world. It is also one
of the first essentials to the formation of distinct personal
convictions.
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