Perhaps I am growing old and grumpy, but it seems to me that the character trait that is most prized in today's world is "self-esteem." Of course, the flip side to "self-esteem" (unbeknownst to those who have it) is "self-delusion." Thus, for example, I suspect that there are a large number of us who feel that we are
both good and clever. I offer the following poem by Elizabeth Wordsworth (1840-1932) as a possible source of humility. (And I do
include myself among those who are in need of humility.)
Maxwell Armfield (1882-1972), "Still Life of Shells and Wrack" (1971)
Good and Clever
If all the good people were clever,
And all clever people were good,
The world would be nicer than ever
We thought that it possibly could.
But somehow 'tis seldom or never
The two hit it off as they should;
The good are so harsh to the clever,
The clever so rude to the good!
So, friends, let it be our endeavour
To make each by each understood,
For few can be good like the clever,
Or clever so well as the good!
Elizabeth Wordsworth,
St. Christopher and Other Poems (1890).
Maxwell Armfield, "Seven Sisters" (1944)
