HUMAN FAILURE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1941, Page 6

HUMAN FAILURE

EXCESSIVE INTROSPECTION. We do not pursue our ideas, clear-cut and simple, with sufficient zeal and vigour. And at least one reason for that failure is our growing habit of crossexamining ourselves about them, said Lord Meston, Chancellor of Aberdeen University, in an address at the graduation ceremony. Of course,,we all consult our conscience, but we do not 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 leads to indecision at critical moments, and to much unhappiness. Avoid, therefore, the pitfall of excessive introspection.