919. What is the most efficacious method of ensuring one's own moral improvement in the present life, and resisting the attraction of evil?

         "One of the sages of antiquity has told you: 'Know thyself".'

         - We fully admit the wisdom of the maxim; but this self-knowledge is just what it is most difficult to acquire. By what means can we acquire it?

         "Do what I myself used to do during my life upon the earth. At the close of each day I examined my conscience, reviewed all that I had done, and asked myself whether I had not failed in some duty, whether some one might not have reason to complain of me. It was in this way that I succeeded in obtaining a know-ledge of me, and in ascertaining what there that was in me needed reforming. He who, every evening, should thus recall all the actions of the day, asking himself whether he has done ill or well, and praying God and his guardian angel to en-lighten him would acquire great strength for self-improvement, for, believe me, God would assist him. Ask yourself these questions; inquire of yourself what you have done, and what was your aim in such and such a manner; whether you have done anything that you would blame in another; whether you have done anything that you would be ashamed to avow. Ask yourself also this question -'If it pleased God to call me back, at this moment, into the other life, should I, on returning into the world of spirits, in which nothing is hidden, have to dread the sight of any one?

         Examine what you may have done, first, against God; next, against your neighbour; and lastly, against yourself. The answers to these questions will either give repose to your conscience, or show you some moral malady of which you will have to cure yourself.

         "Self-knowledge is, therefore, the key to individual improvement; but, you will ask, 'How is one to judge one's self? Is not each man subject to the illusions of self-love, which diminish his faults in his own eyes and find excuses for them? The miser thinks himself to be merely practising economy and foresight; the proud man thinks his pride to be only dignity.' This is true, but you have a means of ascertainment that cannot deceive you. When you are in doubt as to the quality of any one of your actions, ask yourself what would be your judgement in regard to it if it were done by another? If you would blame it in another, it cannot be less blameable when done by you, for God's justice has neither two weights nor two measures.

         Endeavour also to learn what is thought of it by others; and do not overlook the opinion of your enemies, for they have no interest in disguising the truth, and God often places them beside you as a mirror, to warn you more frankly than would be done by a friend. Let him, then, who is firmly resolved on self-improvement examine his conscience in order to root out his evil tendencies, as he roots out the weeds from his garden; let him every night. Cast up his moral accounts for the day, as the tradesman counts tip his profit and loss; he may be sure that the former will be a more profitable operation than the latter. He who, after this footing tip of his day's doings, can say that the balance of the account; is in his favour, may sleep in peace, and fearlessly await the moment of his awaking in the other life.

         "Let the questions you address to us be clear and precise, and do not hesitate to multiply them; you may well devote a few minutes to the securing of a happiness that will last for ever. Do you not labour every day with a view to insuring repose for your old age? Is not this repose the object of your desires, the aim that prompts your endurance of the fatigues and privations of the moment? But what comparison is there between a few days of rest, impaired by the infirmities of the body, and the endless rest that awaits the virtuous? And is not this latter worth the making of a few efforts? I know that many will say, 'The present is certain, and the future uncertain;' but this is precisely the error we are charged to remove from your minds, by showing you your future in such a way as to leave no doubt in your minds concerning it. This is why, having begun by producing phenomena calculated to arrest your attention through their appeal to your senses, we now give you the moral teachings that each of you is charg ed to spread abroad in his turn. It is to this end that we have dictated The Spirit's Book."


         SAINT AUGUSTINE