Chapter XXIX.
The signs by which you can recognize the presence of
carnal pride in a soul.
And
to draw together briefly
what has been said of this kind of pride, by collecting, as well as we
can, some of its signs that we may somehow convey to those who are
thirsting for instruction in perfection, an idea of its characteristics
from the movements of the outward man: I think it well to unfold them
in a few words that we may conveniently recognize the signs by which we
can discern and detect it, that when the roots of this passion are laid
bare and brought to the surface, and seen and traced out with ocular
demonstration, they may be the more easily plucked up and avoided. For
only then will this most pestilent evil be altogether escaped, and if
we do not begin too late in the day, when it has already got the
mastery over us, to be on our guard against its dangerous heat and
noxious influence, but if, recognizing its symptoms (so to speak)
beforehand, we take precautions against it with wise and careful
forethought. For, as we said before, you can tell a man’s inward
condition from his outward gait. By these signs, then, that
carnal pride, of which we spoke earlier, is shown. To begin with, in
conversation the man’s voice is loud: in his silence there is
bitterness: in his mirth his laughter is noisy and excessive: when he
is serious he is unreasonably gloomy: in his answers there is rancour:
he is too free with his tongue, his words tumbling out at random
without being weighed. He is utterly lacking in patience, and without
charity: impudent in offering insults to others, faint-hearted in
bearing them himself: troublesome in the matter of obedience except
where his own wishes and likings correspond with his duty: unforgiving
in receiving admonition: weak in giving up his own wishes: very
stubborn about yielding to those of others: always trying to compass
his own ends, and never ready to give them up for others: and thus the
result is that though he is incapable of giving sound advice, yet in
everything he prefers his own opinion to that of the
elders.