The first is the person who errs at every step in his life and who finds fault with others at every moment of his life. One can picture this person as someone who is always likely to fall, who is on the point of tumbling down; and when he falls he at once catches someone else and pulls him down with him. This is not rare if we study the psychology of man. The one who finds fault with another is very often the one who has the most faults himseIf. The right person first finds fault with himself; the wrong person finds fault with himself last; only after having found fault with the whole world does he find fault with himself. And then everything is wrong, then the whole world is wrong.

2.

The next grade of personality is that of the one who begins to see the wrong in himself and the right in the other. Naturally he has the opportunity in his life to correct himself because he finds time to discover all his own faults. The one who finds fault with others has no time to find fault with himself. Besides he cannot be just; the faculty of justice cannot be awakened unless one begins to practice that justice by finding the faults in oneself.

3.

The third person is the one who says, "What does it matter if you did wrong or if I did wrong? What is needed is to right the wrong." He naturally develops himself and helps his fellow-men also to develop.

4.

Then there is the fourth man, who can never see what is called good without the possibility of its becoming bad, and who can never see what is called bad without the possibility of that bad turning into good. The best person in the world cannot hide his faults before him and the worst person in the world will show his merit to his eyes.

5.

But when man has risen to the fifth grade of personality, then these opposite ideas of right or wrong, good or bad, seem to be like the two ends of one line. When that time has come he can say little about it, for people will not believe him, while he is the one who can judge rightly, yet he will be the last to judge.

Vol. 6, The Alchemy of Happiness

Grades of Personality

-ALL-

Vol. 6, The Alchemy of Happiness

Grades of Personality

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.