- ferent forms. Could any superiority to the rest of the
world make pride excusable, it might have been pardoned in Solomon; but he has been so far from allowing it either in himself or others, that he has left a perpetual attestation in favour of humility, that "where pride cometh, there cometh shame; but with the lowly is wisdom."
This assertion I shall endeavour to explain and confirm,
First: By considering the nature of pride in general, with its attendants and consequences.
Secondly: By examining some of the usual motives to pride; and showing how little can be pleaded in excuse of it.
Thirdly: By showing the amiableness and excellence of humility.
First: By considering in general the nature of pride, with its attendants and consequences.
Pride, simply considered, is an immoderate degree of self-esteem, or an over-value set upon a man by himself, and, like most other vices, is founded originally on an intellectual falsehood. But this definition sets this vice in the fairest light, and separates it from all its consequences, by considering man without relation to society, and independent of all outward circumstances. Pride, thus defined, is only the seed of that complicated sin against which we are cautioned in the text. It is the pride of a solitary being, and the subject of scholastick disquisitions, not of a practical discourse.
In speculation, pride may be considered as ending where it began, and exerting no influences beyond the bosom in which it dwells; but in real life, and the course of affairs, pride will always be attended with kindred passions, and produce effects equally injurious to others, and destructive to itself.
He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them. To this fancied superiority it is owing, that tyrants have squandered the lives of millions, and looked unconcerned on the
