The Moral Vision
Broken Pledges
~ 288 ~
necklace out of his safe and send it to a jeweller to
have it valued, so that he could sell it. To his
consternation he was told that it was made of brass.
Although the doctor was shocked momentarily, it
did not take him long to recover. He said that he
had lost his money but that he would not lose his
composure. He chose to forget all about this sad
incident, and simply took the chain out of his safe
and put it in a common almirah, along with other
articles made of brass.
This attitude adopted by the doctor is the best
solution to many problems that arise from our
contacts with other people. Whenever our hopes
and trusts have been betrayed, we feel that we have
genuine grounds for feeling aggrieved. When a
supposed man of principle proves a scoundrel, a
well-wisher turns out an enemy and a reasonable
person shows himself to be quite the reverse, we
feel really let down.
On such occasions, the best policy is to bring those
who have disappointed us down from the high
pedestals that we had them on, and put them back
among the commonplace. What had formerly been
