Let Each Man Learn to Know Himself: A Poem

LET EACH MAN LEARN TO KNOW HIMSELF. (Reprinted by request from Vol. 3, Improvement Era.) Let each man learn to know himself: To gain that knowledge, let him labor, Improve those failings in himself, Which he condemned so in his neighbor. How lenient our own faults we view, And conscience' voice adeptly smother; But oh ! how harshly we review The self -same errors in another. And if. you meet an erring one Whose deeds are blamable or thoughtless. Consider, ere you cast the stone, If you yourself be pure and faultless. Oh! list to that small voice within, Whose whisperings oft make men confounded. And trumpet not another's sin. You'd blush deep if your own were sounded. And in self -judgment, if you find. Your deeds to others are superior, To you has Providence been kind, As you should be to those inferior; Example sheds a genial ray Of light, which men are apt to borrow; So first, improve yourself today. And then improve your friends tomorrow.