When and How to Talk of One's Self : Page 218

A particularly pitiful type of self-praise runs to the moral. In a way it is a tribute to virtue that everyone wants to advertise himself as charitable, generous, honest, and fair, even though few in reality seem to shine in it except in talk. Hearing people talk one might be led to believe that none of them has ever passed a beggar without giving a quarter, that all send mass stipends to missionaries, that they go around hoping to be given too much change by the drugstore clerk so they can flourishingly give it back, and that none of them ever loafed on the boss's time. The way they pat themselves on the moral back is usually by way of criticizing someone else. They say, "The paper boy has been around six times next door to collect for the paper. They always put him off saying they just happen to be out of change. It doesn't seem right. In our house tradesmen come first, and luxuries later. Why, the other day when my husband wanted to buy cigars with the money set aside for the paper boy, I said, 'John, how can you think of such a thing? You know the paper boy comes first.' " Here, under