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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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- - And Prompt Me " , Hence Plain And , ...
not to judge . There are always trimmers , wiio see too distinctly for tlieir own peace of mind and straightness of conduct the other
side of a question ; who always make more allowance for those with whom they disagreethan for themselves . "Why should I
, condemn his Sonnet ? " thinks some sincere Philinte . cc Am / the sole judge of what a Sonnet should be ? " Butin the mainthe
root of this insincerity will be found , on deeper , probing , to , be selfishness . It pains ourselves to give pain to others . Smiles are
easier than frowns , and fair words than reproaches . Negative selfishness—if not the positive selfishnessof wishing to be liked by
, others , and to be paid back with interest in our own coin . From this habitual insincerity comes that other vice of habitual
slander . If we do not speak unpleasant truths to our friends ' faceswe speak themwhen their backs are turned . Bas much
as we , falsify truth on , the complaisant side , by so much we y are apt _, to falsify it on the slanderous side . Our care of our own
_reputation for cleverness forces us , after we have been complacently listening to the monstrous assertions of a liaror the blunders of a
, ifool , to show to our other friends that we are not really deceived . We take the dark aspect of the absent person ' s character , which
_^ -we sarcastic altogether exaggeration ignored . in Slan his de presence r comes , and to be make looke this d on darker as wit by ;
and a Celimene piques herself on her talent for defamation . Are we allthenin flying the example of the Celimenesto
Ibecome Alcestes , ? Shall , we sweep away the amenities of life , , and only meet to mortify each other by unpleasant personalities ?
Does our argument come to the conclusion that politeness is a mere affair of varnish which , in comparison of substantial truth , is
of no worth ? duotk the misanthropic Jacques" That they call compliment is
, like the encounter of two dog-apes . " As it seems , there is not generally a definite idea of what courtesy
Is . There is a true courtesy and a false . The " courtesy with a i : ouch of traitor in it" of Tennyson's Sir Gawain , is not sufficiently
distinguished from " that gentleness which , when it weds with _, manhoodmakes a man . " When we find that the gilt wears off
from Sir , Gawain ' s gingerbread , we are too ready to believe that there is no solid gold . But there isneverthelessa courtesy which
, , lias its very foundations in truth—which is the unaffected expression of essential human sympathies . This courtesy is an unerring
guide under all circumstances and conditions , showing us intuitively our right behaviour to all personsfrom the king to the beggar .
There cannot be a greater breach , of this true courtesy than the conventional insincerity of which we speak . The clearing away of
this deleterious varnish would not touch the substantial reality of which it has come to be the pseudo _* representative ;
