The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1867-12-25
Cynicisn.

From Good Words weHextract some pas.
sages concerning fault-fnding another form of
corrupt communication, tendency to which
renders ones conversation evil and unwhole.
some:
"There are people who have preternatural
faculty for detecting evil, or the appearance
of evil, in every man. character. They have
fatal scent for carrion. Their memory is
like museum | once saw at medical college,
and illustrates all the hideous distortions, and
monstrous growths, and revolving diseases by
which humanity can be troubled and afflicted.
They think that they have wonderful knowl
edge Of human nature: | prefer to study it in
the beautiful and majestic forms of heroes and
gods. 1t is blunder to mistake the NeUgdte
Calendar for biographical dictionary.
"a less offensive type OF the same tenden-
cy leads some people to find apparent satisfac-
ton in the discovery and proclamation of
slighter defects in the habits of good men and
the conduct of public Institutions. They can
not talk about the benefits conferred by great
hospital without lamenting some insignificant
blot in its laws, and some trifling want of pru-
deace In it's management. Speak to them
about man whose good works everybody is
admiring, and they cool your ardor by regret
ting that he is so rough in his manner, or so
smooth, that his temper is so hasty, or that
he is so fond of applause. They seem to hold
brief requiring them to prove the impossi-
bility of human perfection They detect the
slightest alloy in the pure gold of human good
ness That there are spots in the sun is with
them something more than an observed fact
it takes rank with priori and necessary truths
"There are people who, if they hear an or
gan, find out at once which are the poorest
stops. If they listen to a great speaker, they
remember nothing but some slip in the con-
struction Of sentence the consistency Of a
metaphor, or the evolution of an argument
While their friends are admiring the wealth
and beauty of a tree whose branches are
weighed down with fruit, they have discovered
a solitary bough, lost in the golden affluence,
on which nothing is hanging. Poor
Hazlitt was sorely troubled with them in his
time. 'Litteness, he said. is their element.
and they give character of meanness to what
ever they touch. They creep, buzz, and fly
blow. 1t is much easier to crush than to catch
these troublesome insects and when they are
in your power, your self respect spares them.
Suppose that this habltual depreciation of
character never sinks into actual falsehood and
SANDER, and that every fault alleged, or hinted
vi SuSpCCtCu. Gall DlONShj ouppOoC LudJ lulS
ignoble criticism is not ignorant laundering,
and that every imagined imperfection is real
is this oarping, cynical temper much less CEN
surable, or are the words it prompts much less
injurious? The influence of talk of this kind
is gradually to lead people to believe that there
is nothing in this world which it is safe to
trust, honorable to love, or discriminating to
admire. Reverence for sanity goodness van
ishes; gratitude for kindness is chilled; and
that enthusiastic admiration of great genius
which communicates to common men some
thing of the strength, and inspires them with
something of the dignity belonging to genius
itself, is ANONYMOUSLY quenched.
:" 1t is a Christian grace to have pleasant
and affectionate thoughts about men, to rejoice
in their excellencies, and charitably to forget
as far as may be their shortcomings. 1t is the
attribute of pure and beautiful nature to have
an eye quick to discern, and heart warm to
honor, all that is fair, and bright, and gene
reas in human, nature. The words which dis
courage the charity that thinketh no evil,
and give keenness if not malignty, to the dis
covery of imperfection, are corrupt and I'M
wholesome; they are not to be spoken by our
selves, and are not to be listened to when
spoken by others.