thus, too, several fork inventors in various countries had been quelled, until the wicked idea entered into a man who had no aunt, and the forks were invented; but he, the inventor, was justly burnt alive. It is really very serious to observe how, even in modern times, the arts of discouragement prevail. There are men, whose sole pretense to wisdom consists in administering discouragement. They are never at a loss. They are equally ready to prophesy, with wonderful ingenuity, all possible varieties of misfortune to any enterprise that is proposed; and, when the thing is produced, and has met with some success, to find a flaw in it. I once saw a work of art produced in the presence of an eminent cold water pourer. He did not deny that it was beautiful, but he instantly fastened upon a small crack in it, that nobody had observed; and upon that crack he would dilate, whenever the work was discussed in his presence. Indeed, he did not see the work, but only the crack in it. That flaw, that little flaw, was all in all to him. not all of one indulge in this They really do Others are The cold-water pourers are frame of mind. Some are led to recreation from genuine timidity. fear that all new attempts will fail. simply envious and ill-natured. Then, again, there is a sense of power and wisdom in prophesying evil. Moreover, it is the safest thing to prophesy, for hardly anything at first suc ceeds exactly in the way it was intended to succeed. Again, there is the lack of imagination which gives rise to the utterance of so much discouragement. For any ordinary man, it must have been a great mental strain to grasp the ideas of the first projectors of steam and gas, electric telegraphs, and pain deadening chloroform. The inventor is always, in the eyes of his fellow-men, somewhat of a madman; and often they do their best to make him so. Again, there is the want of sympathy; and that is, perhaps, the ruling cause in most men's minds who give themselves up to discourage. They are not tender enough, or sympathetic enough, to appreciate all the pain they are giving, when, in a dull, plodding way, they lay out argument after argument to show that the project which the poor inventor has set his heart upon, and upon which, perhaps, he has staked his fortune, will not succeed. But what inventors suffer is but a small part of what mankind in general endure from thoughtless and unkind discouragement. Those highsouled men belong to the suffering class, and must suffer; but it is in daily life that the wear and tear of discouragement tell so much. Propose, not a great invention, but a small party of pleasure, to an apt discourager (and there is generally one in most households), and see what he will make of it. It soon becomes sickled over with doubt and despondency; and, at last, the only hope of the proposer is, that his proposal, when realized, will not be an ignominious failure. All hope of pleasure, at least for him, the proposer, has long been out of the question. — SIR ARTHUR HELPS. Detraction. MPERFECT man—imperfect world— But softer, words like these suit not The Poet's strain so grand and true, And in a Painting, to the race A holy benefaction, A fly-speck on a darkened face No matter, in this world of ours, How much there be of beauty- This spirit does not so much deny the excellence you present to its acknowledgement as seek to diminish or disparage it. It deals not perhaps in calumnious falsehoods, but in perpetual abatements and curtailments. It inclines to depreciate what it cannot condemn. It judges by defects rather than by excellencies, and has a sharper eye for faults than for merits. If you speak of the brightness of the sun, the detractor never omitteth to tell you of its spots. If you show him a diamond, he alloweth it may be one, he will not say it is not, but possibly it may be nothing but paste, at all events there is a flaw in it. He spieth out cracks and blemishes in all things that seem whole and fair, and hath ever a microscope at hand to show them to you if you will but look through it. He never thinks of putting it to the use of disclosing the soul of goodness in things imperfect. His vocation is to detect imperfections in things good; and as everything brightest and fairest in the world of human nature and human action is flecked with some spot or flaw, so nothing can abide his sharp scrutiny. Now there is nothing in the world that is fitted to affect a just and candid mind with greater aversion than such a detracting spirit. The habit of depreciation is not indeed always the sure proof of a base nature. Sometimes it betokens nothing worse than a mere unfortunate narrow-mindedness, which finds but few things to praise because it is simply unable to understand and admire things outside its own sphere, and so is quite honestly disposed to disallow the possible excellence that may be in them. Sometimes it may proceed from that form of intense self-love which is full of satisfaction with itself, its own doings and possessions and with everything in any way related to itself. It thinks highly and speaks warmly of its own wife, children, friends, horses and dogs,—which is nothing to be condemned if only it were not given to spying out things to dispraise in other peoples' wives, children, friends, horses and dogs. Its own geese are not only always swans, but other peoples' swans are nothing but geese. Sometimes it springs from the vanity which plumes itself on the acuteness it displays. It does not mean to be ill-natured; but it cannot resist the temptation to pick holes in its neighbor's coat merely to show its smartness. But sometimes, alas, nothing better can be said of it than that it has its root in a spirit of jealousy, envy, or even even wanton malice. "The Devil's heartiest laugh is at a detracting witticism. Hence the phrase, 'Devilish good.'" |