There was a wealth of wisdom in the counsel of Solon, the Greek lawgiver, "Know thyself." The so-called self-consciousness which we find in the world takes a variety of forms, such as self-love, self-will, self-justification, self-pity, etc., but self-knowledge is more of a rarity. We are occasionally tempted to feel vexed and impatient because we do not seem to be understood, when, in fact, we may be very far from understanding ourselves. If at times we could get a glimpse through the eyes of others, it might help to disabuse our minds of the erroneous exalted estimates we may have formed of ourselves. As Bums says,—
Oh wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursel's as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
And foolish notion.
But there is a much higher sense or knowledge of self to be gained than either our own or other people's concepts.
