[Footnote: See Simpson's "Life of Stephen Girard" (Phila. 1832), and H.
W. Arey's "Girard College and its Founder" (1860).]
XXIV.
HUMILITY.
MEMORY GEMS.
Humility is the true cure for many a needless heartache.—A. Montague
It is easy to look down on others; to look down on ourselves is the
difficulty.—Lord Peterborough
Humility is a divine veil which covers our good deeds, and hides them
from our eyes.—St. John Climacas
Humility is the root, mother, nurse, foundation, and bond of all
virtue.—Chrysostom
Modest humility is beauty's crown; for the beautiful is a hidden thing,
and shrinks from its own power.—Schiller
We pass now from the strong and active virtue of self-help, to the gentle and passive virtue of humility. In doing so, we quickly discover that it requires a sound moral judgment to strike the right balance between humility and self-reliance, and between meekness and self-respect. The true man is both meek and self-reliant, humble and yet by no means incapable of self-assertion. The really strong man is the most thoroughly gentle of men, and the genuinely self-confident man is the one who is most truly humble in his regard for the rights and interests of others.