It is
often said that people who wield a great personal influence have
the gift of making the individual with whom they are dealing feel
that his case is the most interesting and important with which they
have ever come in contact, and of inspiring and maintaining a
special kind of relationship between themselves and their
petitioner. That is no doubt a very encouraging thing for the
applicant to feel, even though he is sensible enough to realise
that his case is only one among many with which his adviser is
dealing, and probably not the most significant. Upon such a quality
as this the success of statesmen, lawyers, physicians largely
depends. But where the dramatic sense is combined with egotism,
selfishness, and indifference to the claims of others, it is a
terrible inheritance. It ministers, as I have said before, to its
possessor's self-satisfaction; but on the other hand it is a
failing which goes so deep and which permeates so intimately the
whole moral nature, that its cure is almost impossible without the
gift of what the Scripture calls "a new heart.
Pages:
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234