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This then is my idea of the Great-minded man; and he who is in

the defect is a Small-minded man, he who is in the excess a Vain

man. However, as we observed in respect of the last character we

discussed, these extremes are not thought to be vicious exactly,

but only mistaken, for they do no harm.

The Small-minded man, for instance, being really worthy of good

deprives himself of his deserts, and seems to have somewhat

faulty from not having a sufficiently high estimate of his own

desert, in fact from self-ignorance: because, but for this, he

would have grasped after what he really is entitled to, and that

is good. Still such characters are not thought to be foolish, but

rather laggards. But the having such an opinion of themselves

seems to have a deteriorating effect on the character: because in

all cases men's aims are regulated by their supposed desert, and

thus these men, under a notion of their own want of desert, stand

aloof from honourable actions and courses, and similarly from

external goods.