The third step of pride: giddiness.53
Ladders
We will proceed to the third step of pride — to teach it, not, I hope, to practice it.
The third step of pride: giddiness The proud always seek what is pleasant and try to avoid what is troublesome. In the words of scripture: "Where there is gladness, there is the heart of a fool." Having come down the two steps of curiosity and levity of mind, you will find much to upset you. You are saddened every time you see the goodness of others. Impatient with humiliation, you find an escape in false consolations. Your eyes are closed to anything that shows your own vileness or the excellence of others, wide open to what flatters yourself. You are largely saved now from your moody exaltation and depression, you have retired into a happy cloud-land. This is the third step.
There are indications by which you can know when you yourself or another have reached this point. Watch yourself and you will never notice anything like a tear or a sigh. Your appearance is that of a person who is forgetful of what you are or at least one now purified of all trace of sin. You are scurrilous, over cheerful in appearance, swaggering in bear ing, always ready for a joke, any little thing quickly gets a laugh. You are careful not to remember anything you have done which could hurt your self-esteem. But all your good points will be remembered and added up and, if need be, touched up by imagination. You think only of what you want and never of what is permitted. At times you simply cannot stop laughing or hide your empty-headed merri ment. You are like a well-filled bladder that has been pricked and squeezed. The air, not finding a free vent, whistles out through the little hole with squeak after squeak. Vain thoughts and silly jokes gather pressure inside until they burst out in giggles. In embarrassment you bury