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THE GATHERER.

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ARROGANCE.

Owen Feltham says:  “I never yet found pride in a noble nature, nor humility in an unworthy mind.  It may seem strange to an inconsiderate eye, that such a poor violet virtue should ever dwell with honour; and that such an aspiring fume as pride is, should ever sojourn with a constant baseness.  It is sure, we seldom find it, but in such as being conscious of their own deficiency, think there is no way to get honour but by a bold assuming it.  If you search for high and strained carriages, you shall for the most part meet with them in low men.  Arrogance is a weed that ever grows in a dunghill.  It is from the rankness of that soil that she hath her height and spreadings.  Witness clowns, fools, and fellows that from nothing are lifted some few steps upon fortune’s ladder; where, seeing the glorious representment of honour above, they are so greedy of embracing, that they strive to leap thither at once:  so by overreaching themselves in the way, they fail of the end, and fall.  And all this happiness, either for want of education, which should season their minds with the generous precepts of morality; or, which is more powerful, example; or else for lack of a discerning judgment, which will tell them that the best way thither, is to go about by humility and desert.  Otherwise the river of contempt runs betwixt them and it:  and if they go not by these passages, they must of necessity either turn back with shame, or suffer in the desperate venture.  Of trees, I observe, God hath chosen the vine, a low plant that creeps upon the helpful wall.  Of all beasts, the soft and patient lamb.  Of all fowls, the mild and gall-less dove.  Christ is the rose of the field, and the lily of the valley.  When God appeared to Moses, it was not in the lofty cedar, nor the sturdy oak, nor the spreading plane; but in a bush, an humble, slender, abject shrub:  as if he would, by these elections, check the conceited arrogance of man.  Nothing procureth love like humility; nothing hate, like pride.  The proud man walks among daggers pointed against him; whereas the humble and the affable, have the people for their guard in dangers.  To be humble to our superiors, is duty; to our equals, courtesy; to our inferiors, nobleness:  which for all her lowness, carries such a sway that she may command their souls.  But we must take heed, we express it not in unworthy actions.  For then leaving virtue, it falls into disdained baseness, which is the undoubtable badge of one that will betray society.  So far as a man, both in words and deeds, may be free from flattery and unmanly cowardice, he may be humble with commendation; but surely no circumstance can make the expression of pride laudable.  If ever it be, it is when it meets with audacious pride, and conquers.  Of this good it may then be author, that the affronting man, by his own folly, may learn the way to his duty and wit.  Yet this I cannot so well call pride, as an emulation of the divine justice; which will always vindicate itself upon presumptuous ones, and is indeed said to fight against no sin but pride.”