“This man beside us also has a hard fight with an
unfavouring world, with strong temptations, with doubts and fears, with wounds
of the past which have skinned over, but which smart when they are touched. It
is a fact, however surprising. And when this occurs to us we are moved to deal
kindly with him, to bid him be of good cheer, to let him understand that we are
also fighting a battle; we are bound not to irritate him, nor press hardly upon
him nor help his lower self.”--Scottish minister John Watson (aka Ian Maclaren, 1850-1907), “Courtesy,”
in The Homely Virtues (1904)
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