The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-14 00:00:00

What is that which is called common sense ?
We should never be able to discover it by its name,
if we were to look for it as long as we lived. The
faculty of seeing with our eyes' instead of our ima-
gination, of feeling with our hands instead of our
prejudices or predispositions, of hearing with our
own ears instead of the ears of ether people, and
of acting by the standard of reason instead of
caprice and impulse, is that which is called com-
mon sense. To see things as they are, to take the
form and altitude of all known or visible matters as
nature or circumstance has created them, to walk
onward, to think rightly, judge truly, and to act
justly, are the fruits of common sense. Are these
evidences of the faculty so familiar and universal,
so vulgar and domestic, and so simple of detection,
as to justify the designation—common ? Do
people usually see things as they are, measure all
matters accurately, proceed straight-forward, think
rightly, and act justly ? That which we call com-
mon is uncommon, and not only uncommon, but
so rare, that ninety-nine in every hundred men,
women,and children, descend into their graves with-
out having witnessed one instance of its existence.
The application of the term is consistent with
the employment. A fellow who is half a knave
and half a fool, who shuffles through the world
without dirtying his coat, who contrives to keep up
appearances, and make money, and look hale, and
shake his head at every thing that is above his com-
prehension, and decry every thing that substitutes
the beautiful and good for the substantial and use-
ful, is proverbially a man of common sense. A
poet who has visions of glory in his garret, can
never hope for a reputation for common sense. Any
one who forsakes his own interest to enlarge the
happiness of mankind, who dedicates himself to an
unprofitable labour of love, and prefers the con-
Reioll iDeSS of having done well to the sordid rewards
of doing cunningly, is not a man of common sense.
The world turns on its axis in vain for such people.
They are just suffered to live by the multitude,who,
if they might, would tear them to pieces by way of
showing that abhorrence of persons who are want-
ing in an attribute which is so popular on the lips
of the mob. As it is, they are heartily despised,
barely tolerated, and escape persecution merely be-
cause common sense is supisosed to be superior to
such small game.
Alas ! for poor wisdom, that struggles through
this bitter martyrdom, and would fain make herself
known in all her loveliness, if the mighty error of
convention would but permit her. To be wise in the
abstract is to lack common sense, which is a deity
on the surface, that stands upright like art Egyptian
idol, with huge feet, and ponderous arms and staring
eyes, and never penetrating the regions of space, or
the depths of earth, but only grasping what is
within aria's length. Wisdom herself is foolishness,
if she accommodate not her ways to the says of the
world. Knowledge is not power, unless knowledge
humiliate herself to base uses, and drivel into the ears
of asses. To be good is not to be great, unless good-
ness make unto itself a temple of opulence.
Whatever is successful is all in all. The test
is the triumph of ways and means. The world's
common sense consists not in judging rightly but le
judging prudently; not in reporting truly, but in re-
porting cautiously. The suppressio yeti, and the
suggestio falsi —the reservations that puzzle your
adversaries, the tricks that embarrass them, and the
net of Ingenious sophistries that catches them, are
the weapons of the world's common sense. It is
the wary fox, that devises schemes arid thrives upon
them—the secret mole, that undermines the element
in which it lives, keeping a clear passage' for retreat
when the impending,weight from which it has eaten
away the support is about to topple over its head.
This attribute of our nature is truly common
enough. But we know not when it acquired a title
to the name of sense. The physical senses are na-
tural, and not artificial; they drink in what is spread
out before them in the bountiful universe, but they
distort it not for low ends and personal advantages.
That process takes place within. l'he mental
sense that governs the operations of reason—
that undefinable power, by which we analyze and
compare, add and deduct, reflect and decide, is not
a sophist to itself. We could not deceive if we did
not know that we were deceiving. It would seem,
therefore, that our common sense, which is no better
than a dexterous art in accumulatiug individual be-
. netits, is a voluntary deception which we practice in
our dealings with the world, We give it a good
1 name that it may pass current, arid we pretend to
respect it in each other, in order that it may be re-
spected in ourselves. It is the right hand of selfish-
r tiess, the agent of interest, and the abetter of all
petty violations of moral right.
The ermine is said to die the moment it receives

a single stain on its pure skin. Common sense will
never die of sensibility, for it is one of the peculiar
merits of those who are distinguished by its posses-
sion to revive reproach, and smile at shame.—Ken-
dal Paper.