Self-control and how to secure it = (L'éducation de soi-même) / by Paul Dubois ; Authorized translation by Harry Hutcheson Boyd.

  • Paul Charles Dubois
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Self-control and how to secure it = (L'éducation de soi-même) / by Paul Dubois ; Authorized translation by Harry Hutcheson Boyd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    He who every day is called upon to inter- view the mentally diseased who have so-called healthy relatives experiences painful sur- prises in finding how warped are the minds of individuals who are proud of their intelli- gence, and belong to recognised social and what are called governing classes! I have no intention whatever to speak here of present- day difficulties, of those political, religious, and social crises of which each generation ex- aggerates the importance, as if the world had just begun to go wrong. No; weakness of judgment has always existed since the world began—and this fact justifies the epigram of George Eliot, We are born in a state of moral stupidity.'' Now, judgment is just what we need in life —a clear view of things, enabling us to fore- see the immediate and the future conse- quences of our acts. We have this foresight when it is a ques- tion of protecting our material interests. What ingenuity do we not display in the pur- suit of these benefits in reaching our goal! But when it is a question of our moral life, our conduct, we lose our power of judgment. [8]