The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one’s self a fool; the truest heroism is, to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when to be obeyed. There are people who never do anything worth watching; they cannot eat an apple or button a shoe in an unnoticeable, unsuggestive manner. They undertake to be awkward, they do it so symbolically that you feel in debt to them for it.

You young creatures covet independency; but those who wish most for it are seldom the fittest to be to be trusted either with the government of themselves or with power over others. There are many different types of personalities, the Observer is one of them. The Observer requires privacy and isolation. To this end, one constructs an invisible wall around oneself, through which no one may enter. Within these confines, this personality type is perfectly self-sufficient, resourceful, and independent. In this World, people must climb their own trees.

All bodily racks and torments are nothing compared with certain states of the human mind. With the Observer, they feel anxiety is always lurking, in case someone or something because indispensable, with the attendant danger of being trapped by it. The horror of being caged or imprisoned through identification with someone else ensure there is seldom a personal attachment that could create such a situation. People often do the idlest acts of their lifetime in their heaviest and most anxious moments.

Rather than letting someone or something come too close, this Observer type adopts an attitude of indifference—preferring nothing to really matter much, rather than to allow others to touch too deeply. The detached Observer would even sacrifice situations that were potentially enjoyable rather than risk dependence on another. If one could only make a sacrifice all at once, and be done with it, it would seem easier; but to keep up a daily sacrifice of one’s wishes, taste, and pleasures is a hard task.

Even food, drink and comfort are eschewed if they involve a lifestyle that requires tie and energy to maintain. Here, we find strenuous avoidance of anything that might create any hint of dependence, including feeling unwell.  If you would have your son to walk honorably through the World, you must not attempt to clear the stones from his path, but teach him to walk firmly over them—not insist upon leading him by the hand, but let him learn to go alone.

An illustration of how the Observer types might be completely misunderstood is when they hate being fussed over when unwell, only requiring the absolute minimum of care to bring them back to health. However, when they apply the same principle to people who loved being looked after, they are seen as heartless and uncaring. Reader, do you know, as I do, what terror those cold people can put into the ice of their questions? How much of the fall of the avalanche is in their anger? Of the breaking up of the frozen sea in their displeasure?

Invariably, the Observer prefers to work alone and, if possible, even to eat and sleep alone, and really dislikes group happenings or sharing things. There is a preference to acquire knowledge first-hand and not rely on what others have already allegedly discovered. This can be an advantage, but it can also be taken to extreme, like refusing to take advice from those who are willing to share and really can help. Philosophy never had any remedy that can cure an indifferent mind.

Because of the requirement to examine everything for oneself, as if it is for the first time, there is a certain integrity in the strategy of this type. The Observer will not be an unthinking robot, taking everyone else’s word for things. Independent self-experience is essential because the frigid theories of a generalizing age have destroyed the individuality of humans.

Yet, this overwhelming requirement to be self-sufficient and detached may not always be beneficial. The strategy can become a negative avoidance of being influences or obligated in any way, rather than beneficial independence for its own sake. Nothing is great but the personal. As civilization advances, the accidents of life become each day less important. The power of humans, one’s greatness and  glory, depends on essential qualities. Brains every day become more precious than blood.

There is also a tendency to feel a certain superiority in one’s splendid isolation, a profound sense of being unique among others, without the requirement to be competitive nor assertive about it. Trust me, there are as many of living as there are people, and one is no more fit to lead another, than a bird to lead a fish, or a fish a quadruped. When the mind is under the pressure of affliction, every indulgence tends to soften it. Rhetoric in a worthy cause has good chances of carrying the gravest.

Overall, the Observer type experiences independence, the isolation of the observer, and self-sufficiency as expansive. Over-identification with another person, a cause or a thing is essentially experiences as a contraction of the spirit. My word is word of power, for I know that it is the word of the greatest God within me. My word shall accomplish and prosper, and shall do good unto all who call upon my name. My word is a tower of strength and cannot be denied. It is complete and perfect here and not. My word is the word of God. The truth within me is unassailable, and the power of the word is irresistible.