ON RESENTING CRITICISM

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 25

ON RESENTING CRITICISM

<- ££ T^ might do us good to remember that people do not think '" I as rauch about us as we think about ourselves," writes the- ','. Rev. Professor Eric S. Waterhouse, D.D., in the "Path- ;: finder." "We make a mistake, and imagine the whole place is ring- '"• ing with it. What actually happens is that the critics discuss us for ■ ■ five minutes and soon forget us in pursuit of more recent victims. '.". Yet people continue to make themselves miserable with quite an ;" exaggerated sense of the interest others take in them. ■- "Perhaps this, too, is another example of the foolish tendency '.". to redress our sense of inferiority through an exaggerated sense of I [ our importance. The inferiority sense, however, is not something to ■ ■ be dismissed as a trifle. It is a factor in most personalities, and ' - in some the dominating factor. To shut one's eyes to it generally I! leads to aggravating it. "The cure lies in a sense of the worthwhileness of one s life, ■■a frank recognition of one's own limitations, and equally the sense '.'. of confidence, not of over-confidence, in one's abilities. If we would ;; compare ourselves with ourselves instead of comparing ourselves ■ ■ with others, we should be far happier. '. "■ "To be able to say, I have honestly done the best I could, I ;: cannot do more, should lead us to realise that under the circum- ;' stances it matters not what others say of our best. The only blame ■ ■ we can attach to ourselves is that of not doing our best. When we '.'. have honestly put forth the best in us we need have no inferiority 1' sense. :: "It is no fault of ours that it is no better. When we realise '.'• that there are many bests better than ours, we shall have ho false1 ;: sense of our own superiority. We shall face the judgment of others '■ undisturbed because we know that in-the judgment of the one who ■ ■ alone really matters there is no condemnation for those who have '.'. done their best." . .