THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SELF. 317 



to some degree personifying the principle of right for 

 which the sacrifice is made, and expecting thanks from it. 

 Complete social unselfishness, in other words, can hardly 

 exist ; complete social suicide hardly occur to a man's mind. 

 Even such texts as Job's, " Though He slay me yet will I 

 trust Him," or Marcus Aurelius's, "If gods hate me and 

 nay children, there is a reason for it," can least of all be 

 cited to prove the contrary. For beyond all doubt Job 

 revelled in the thought of Jehovah's recognition of the wor- 

 ship after the slaying should have been done ; and the Koman 

 emperor felt sure the Absolute Keason would not be all 

 indifi'erent to his acquiescence in the gods' dislike. The 

 old test of piety, " Are you willing to be damned for the 

 glory of God?" was probably never answered in the affir- 

 mative except by those who felt sure in their heart of hearts 

 that God would ' credit ' them with their willingness, and 

 set more store by them thus than if in His unfathomable 

 scheme He had not damned them at all. 



All this about the impossibility of suicide is said on the 

 supposition of positive motives. When possessed by the 

 emotion oifear, however, we are in a negative state of mind ; 

 that is, our desire is limited to the mere banishing of some- 

 thing, without regard to what shall take its place. In this 

 state of mind there can unquestionably be genuine thoughts, 

 and genuine acts, of suicide, spiritual and social, as well as 

 bodily. Anything, anything, at such times, so as to escape 

 and not to be ! But such conditions of suicidal frenzy are 

 pathological in their nature and run dead against every- 

 thing that is regular in the life of the Self in man. 



■WHAT SELF IS LOVED IN" ' SELP-LOVE ' P 



We must now try to interpret the facts of self-love and 

 self-seeking a little more delicately from within. 



A man in whom self-seeking of any sort is largely 

 developed is said to be selfish.'* He is on the other hand 



* The kind of selfishness varies with the self that is sought. If it be 

 the mere bodily self ; if a mau grabs the best food, the warm corner, the 

 vacant seat; if he makes room for no one, spits about, and belches in our 

 faces, — we call it hoggishness. If it be the social self, in the form of popu- 

 larity or influence, for which he is greedy, he may in material ways subor- 



