Text of the meditation
The test of a person is in their immediate acts, and not in their ultra sentiments. Sympathy should not be confused with that maudlin and superficial sentiment which, like a pretty flower without root, presently perishes and leaves behind neither seed nor fruit.
To fall into hysterical weeping when parting with a friend, or on hearing of some suffering abroad, is not sympathy. Neither are bursts of violent indignation against the cruelties and injustices of others any indication of a sympathetic mind. If one is cruel at home, if one badgers a spouse, or beats children, or abuses servants, or stabs neighbours with shafts of sarcasm, what hypocrisy is in their profession of love for suffering people who are outside the immediate range of their influence!
What shallow sentiment informs their bursts of indignation against the injustices and hard-heartedness in the world around them! Sympathy is a deep, inexpressible tenderness that is shown in a consistently self-forgetful, gentle character.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.
