And that we are chastised for pride, who
does not know? What proverb more common, what proverb more true, than
that after pride comes a fall? Do we not know (if we do not, we shall
know sooner or later) that the surest way to fail in any undertaking is
to set about it in self-will and self-conceit; that the surest way to do
a foolish thing, is to fancy that we are going to do a very wise one;
that the surest way to make ourselves ridiculous in the eyes of our
fellow-men, is to assume airs, and boast, shew ourselves off, and end by
shewing off only our own folly?
Why is it so? Why has God so ordered the world and human nature, that
pride punishes itself? Because, I presume, pride is begotten and born of
a lie, and God hates a lie, because all lies lead to ruin, and this lie
of pride above all. It is as it were the root lie of all lies. The very
lie by which, as old tales tell, Satan fell from heaven, and when he
tried to become a god in his own right, found himself, to his surprise
and disappointment, only a devil. For pride and self-conceit contradict
the original constitution of man and the universe, which is this--that of
God are all things, and in God are all things, and for God are all
things.
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