Character and Conduct – 23 June – Sound Judgment

IT hardly can seem strange that excellence in judgment is thus rare if we go on to think of the manifold discipline that it needs.

For we cannot deny that even physical conditions tend at least to tell on it;  and most of us may have to own that there are days on which we know that we had better distrust the view we take of things.   It is good counsel that a man should, if he has the chance, reconsider after his holiday any important decision that he was inclined to make just before it;  that he should appeal from his tired to his refreshed self;  and men need to deal strictly with the body, and to bring it into subjection, not only lest its appetites grow riotous, but also lest it trouble, with moods and miseries of its own, the exercise of judgment.

And then, with the calmness of sound health, or the control that a strong and vigilant will can sometimes gain over the encroachments of health that is not sound, there must also be the insight and resourcefulness of learning;  that power to recognise, and weigh, and measure, and forecast, which comes of long watching how things move;  the power that grows by constant thoughtfulness in study or in life;  the distinctive ability of those who, in Hooker’s phrase, are ‘diligent observers of circumstances, the loose regard whereof is the nurse of vulgar folly.’

Studies in the Christian Character, Bishop PAGET

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These quotes are from ‘Character and Conduct’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1905 as a follow up to her volume of Daily Readings for members of the Being and Doing Guild who asked for an additional volume

In her preface Whishaw writes:

‘This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it.’

It is my hope in publishing them here readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.