slight but efficient defence or revenge; their hatred, in the absence of intelligence and presence of mind, does not hit upon any other expedient but destruction.
411
Without hatred.—You wish to bid farewell to your passion? Very well, but do so without hatred against it. Else you will have to contend with a second passion. The Christian's soul which has freed itself from sin is in most cases ruined by the hatred against sin. Look at the faces of great Christians. They are the faces of great haters.
412
Ingenious and narrow-minded.—He does not know how to appreciate anything except himself; and when he wishes to appreciate others he has first to transform them into himself. In this, howererm, he is ingenious.
413
Private and public accusers.—Closely watch the accuser and investigator, —for he reveals his true character: and not rarely a worse character than that of the victim whose crime he attacks. The accuser entertains the innocent belief that the fact of his assailing both the crime and the criminal must needs be a proof of the worthiness of his own character or at least represent him as being such—he consequently uses no restraint, that is, he launches out.
