(_a_) When a man is puffed up with self-esteem because of the natural
gifts he has received, as though they came from himself, and were not
the unmerited gift of God. Thus a girl may become vain and conceited
because she has good hair or eyes, and is esteemed a beauty. A man
because he has wealth. He becomes purse-proud. Or because he has great
abilities. Or because he has great strength and health. This leads to
vain boasting, to an insolent demeanour, to great self-opinionativeness.
(_b_) When a man regards what successes he has met with as due to
his merits. Success may be, and probably is, due in most cases to
frugality, sound judgment, caution at one time and daring at another;
but there is ever in it an element of the unforeseen, due to God's
ordering. Moreover, the good qualities, the prudence, frugality, and
so on, in the man are the growth of good elements implanted in him by
God. A man must always acknowledge God as the Giver of all good things,
recognize His hand in the inception and the carrying out of whatever
succeeds, and must not attribute it solely to himself. The thought of
self drives the thought of God out of the mind.
(_c_) When a man boasts himself of what he has not. When, that is,
in order to flatter his self-pride before others, he pretends to be,
or to have what he is not, or has not got. Thus living under false
appearances, living beyond one's income, are due to Pride.
(_d_) When a man despises others. Every man who looks down on,
disparages, and regards others as common and vile, is guilty of Pride.
The rich have no occasion to despise the poor, those of one social
class to talk contemptuously of those of another, or as being _common_
people, as _Nobodies_. With God nothing is common, and not one of His
creatures is a Nobody. Moreover, it is possible to sin through pride if
those who have committed no mortal sins despise such as have sinned.
Spiritual Pride is the worst kind of Pride.