Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 28, 1898 - Appendix

REFLECTIONS AND REMARKS ON
HUMAN LIFE
I. JUSTICE AND JUSTIFICATION.— (1) It is the busi-
ness of this life to make excuses for others, but none for ourselves.
We should be clearly persuaded of our own misconduct, for
that is the part of knowledge in which we are most apt to be
defective. (2) Even justice is no right of a man's own, but
a thing, like the king's tribute, which shall never be his,
but which he should strive to see rendered to another. None
was ever just to me ; none ever will be. You may reasonably
aspire to be chief minister or sovereign pontiff; but not to
be justly regarded in your own character and acts. You
know too much to be satisfied. For justice is but an earthly
currency, paid to appearances; you may see another super-
ficially righted; but be sure he has got too little or too
much ; and in your own case rest content with what is paid
you. It is more just than you suppose; that your virtues
are misunderstood is a price you pay to keep your meannesses
concealed. (3) When you seek to justify yourself to others,
you may be sure you will plead falsely. If you fail, you
have the shame of the failure ; if you succeed, you will have
made too much of it, and be unjustly esteemed upon the
other side. (4) You have perhaps only one friend in the
world, in whose esteem it is worth while for you to right
yourself. Justification to indifferent persons is, at best, an
impertinent intrusion. Let them think what they please ;
they will be the more likely to forgive you in the end. (5)
It is a question hard to be resolved, whether you should at
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