University of Virginia Library

SELF-RESPECT.

Self-respect is an excellent thing, but, like many
other excellent things, it is susceptible of being over-done.
It sometimes takes the form of a disease, and
runs to self-inflation, on the one hand; or, if poor, to
self-immolation on the altar of pride. People have
starved to death rather than confess to being poor;
and very often, if we could lift the veil from many
homes, we should find bitter distress that friendship

and love would have been glad to relieve, had not
pride shut friendship and love out of its confidence.
Minds so affected call for pity. Beneath the exterior
of cheerfulness, and prosperity, and hope, the darkest
despair is lurking. The heart hardens in the aching of
ever-present misery, and feeds on its silent bitterness.
Such pride, were it rational, would be the height of
wickedness and folly. Of what use are friendship and love
unless they can be appealed to for sympathy and aid in
the dark hour! In them, if rightly regarded, are
deposits which may be drawn upon, and will not be
refused, when the trial comes. This is the case if we
are true to the principles of friendship and love, and
from a just appreciation make our deposit, so to speak,
in the proper institution, as we would make a money
deposit. The right to receive aid where the one asking
it has ever been ready and willing to be drawn
upon at sight, is no more a compromise of pride than
would be the asking for one's own that had been
loaned.