Integrity in Middle Age

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 189, 12 May 1928, Page 17

Integrity in Middle Age

<4 NTEGRITY is one of the introspective virtues. It has less H reference to society than to yourself. We try to achieve it N among men, but we should need it even in solitude,” writes Mr. X John Erskine in the “Century Magazine.”

“It is the art of being wholly one’s self, of being an integer in life. We begin to feel the need of it somewhere in middle age when one or two moods come over us, or perhaps both at once when we feel we have missed something in life, or when we feel that we are ‘put upon,’ as we say, that life is imposing upon us habits and duties not ours. . .. \

‘‘Then we turn our thoughts to a vision of wholeness, a state in which we might' be just ourselves, nothing less and nothing more. For the first time, perhaps, we realise what those ancient Greeks were talking about when they spoke of moderation.! The measure they had in mind was their own personality; nothing in excess meant to them nothing below what they were capable of and entitled to. and nothing beyond. “It is not surprising that before we can understand this virtue we need experience of life. Perhaps we cannot sec the value of being ourselves until we have laboui'ed to be tactful, to practise humoui, and to have taste. After some years of s'incere ambition to give our fellows their due, to respect the idiosyncrasy of the other man, and to avoid rubbing down to a smooth mediocrity the interesting peculiarities of the world about us, we begin to take some interest in our own special tiaits.

“Perhaps we too, we begin to think, deserve respect, at least from ourselves. Our faults and weaknesses should be cured, certainly; but those aspirations ''and gifts which we are convinced are our dis-

tinguishing marks, should not be maimed nor diminished. From youth to age we should progress through life complete. . , .

“As soon as we cross the middle line of life we begin to value highly a continuity of effort. It is’for youth to change and experiment, we say; sooner or-later maturity must make up its mind and keep on. The snare that awaits us even in this sound wisdom is that innate disposition to momentum and habit and laziness from which not even the wisest is free. . • •

“Perhaps it is dangerous in the extreme to plan our future too far ahead. At the present moment we perhaps can see ourselves as we are, and among many choices can select the one which corresponds most closely to our contemporary selves. But how can we select now the life for which we may be fitted ten years from now? It was prudence, then, in the double sense of foresight and caution, which advised us to take no thought for the morrow.

“The narrower kind of prudence'which ties us up to a future for which we may not be suited when it arrives is hostile to integrity. Vocational guidance, save the mark! What fortune is rarer than a good guess for ourselves and for to-day—a clear sight of what is and is not our true nature? But to tell another what part of this world will belong to him for the rest of his life, or to commit him once for all to a career, may be either an aid toward his salvation, or a sentence to gaol. A more friendly help would be to teach him to look into his own heart, and to go toward those aspects of life which he only can recognise as belonging to him.”