ON INTROSPECTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 4 August 1941, Page 4

ON INTROSPECTION

ARGUING WITH OFR CONSCIENCE At the spring graduation ceremony of Aberdeen University, Lord Meston of Agra and Dunottar, Chancellor of the University, in the course of an address read in his unavoidable absence said:— “We do not pursue our ideas, clearcut and simple, with sufficient zeal and vigour. And at least one reason for that failure is our growing habit of cross-examining ourselves about them. “Of course we all consult our conscience, but we don't all argue with it. If conscience is worth anything. it is a sharp, decisive mentor, approving or condemning what we have done or are proposing to do, and wisdom lies in following it. We may be Christians or we may be biologists, or we may be biologists and Christians, but we have all acquired some simple standards of right and wrong, and our conscience is their custodian. If we encourage it in that role and obey it as promptly as it gives its decision, there will be little need for introspection. “But conscience is a tender plant, and does not thrive if it is always being pulled up by the roots, to justify itself. It is very proper and necessary for us now and again to take stock of our moral nature: but I am sure that excessive introspection weakens our conscience and lends to indecision at critical moments, and to much unhappiness. Avoid, therefore. the pitfall of excessive introspection.”