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AND to draw together briefly what has been said of this kind of pride,
by collecting, as well as we can, some of its signs that we may somehow
convey to those who are thirsting for instruction in perfection, an idea of
its characteristics from the movements of the outward man: I think it well
to unfold them in a few words that we may conveniently recognize the signs
by which we can discern and detect it, that when the roots of this passion
are laid bare and brought to the surface, and seen and traced out with
ocular demonstration, they may be the more easily plucked up and avoided.
For only then will this most pestilent evil be altogether escaped, and if
we do not begin too late in the day, when it has already got the mastery
over us, to be on our guard against its dangerous heat and noxious
influence, but if, recognizing its symptoms (so to speak) beforehand, we
take precautions against it with wise and careful forethought. For, as we
said before, you can tell a man's inward condition from his outward gait.
By these signs, then, that carnal pride, of which [we spoke earlier, is
shown. To begin with, in conversation the man's voice is loud: in his
silence there is bitterness: in his mirth his laughter is noisy and
excessive: when he is serious he is unreasonably gloomy: in his answers
there is rancour: he is too free with his tongue, his words tumbling out at
random without being weighed. He is utterly lacking in patience, and
without charity: impudent in offering insults to others, faint-hearted in
bearing them himself: troublesome in the matter of obedience except where
his own wishes and likings correspond with his duty: unforgiving in
receiving admonition: weak in giving up his own wishes: very stubborn about
yielding to those of others: always trying to compass his own ends, and
never ready to give them up for others: and thus the result is that though
he is incapable of giving sound advice, yet in everything he prefers his
own opinion to that of the elders.
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