Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00611)

Thought you-all would like this handy dandy quote from a book called "The
Initiate in the New World" by Cyril Scott. I started to laugh, because I saw
myself in it, plus a few of my e-mail friends.

"I don't intend to deal with it (egotism) in its acute form .... but
something less crude... It is more that
taking-of-oneself-and-one's-work-too- seriously attitude which, I think,
partly arises from an inssufficient all-round sense of humor. Persons
troubled with this complaint seem utterly unable to get away from the
subject of their work; they are like a certain type of amateur - or even
professionsal- pianist who can't keep from the piano, & must always be
strumming even if nobody wants to listen. And mind you - for let's be fair -
it is not only artists who are afflicted in this way. I have known writers
on mystical subjects, theosophists, occultists, politicians, social workers,
(we have a retired one in the building who worked with children, & that kind
of children is the beginning & end all of her conversations lfd) scientists
- it matters not - who all exhibit this charcteristic; they are not
conscious of it, but their acquaintances are, and in consequence soon begin
to get bored with them. 'always the same old subject!' these acquaintances
think,'if only to God they'd shut up just for once in a while or talk about
something else!'...... However elevated the subject, this egotism peeps
through between the lines. These writers seem to be obsessed with the word
'sacredness' - the sacredness of what they are writing about and
particularly their own mission. .... they... write & talk  with bated
breath, and metaphorically, if not actually, fold their hands *& look up to
heaven with a rapt expression of countenance."

hic fuit (the signature of Till Eulenspiegel)
Liesel