The true and safe high-
mindedness, which comes from above, is none other than humility.
For, if you will look at it aright, the humble man is really more
high-minded than the proud man. Think. Suppose two men equal in
understanding, in rank, in wealth, in what else you like, one of
them proud, the other humble. The proud man thinks--'How much
better, wiser, richer, more highly born, more religious, more
orthodox, am I than other people round me.' Not, of course, than
all round him, but than those whom he thinks beneath him. Therefore
he is always comparing himself with those below himself; always
watching those things in them in which he thinks them worse, meaner
than himself; he is always looking down on his neighbours.
Now, which is more high-minded; which is nobler; which is more fit
for a man; to look down, or to look up? At all events the humble
man _looks up_. He thinks, 'How much worse, not how much better, am
I than other people.' He looks at their good points, and compares
them with his own bad ones. He admires them for those things in
which they surpass him. He thinks of--perhaps he loves to read of--
men superior to himself in goodness, wisdom, courage. He pleases
himself with the example of brave and righteous deeds, even though
he fears that he cannot copy them; and so he is always looking up.
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