The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-05
ODDITIES.

We now and then detect in q friend dawn
ing eooentricity which we have to accommo-
date to our previous experience of him. He
surprises us by some departure from usage,
he has fallen into some trick of speech, he
allows himself to enlarge on topics Of merely
personal interest in way that is strange to
ms. He is getting odd, We say; this habit
of his is something new. On reflection we
probably detect the germ of this uppleasing
growth; but what set it growing? 1t may be
some inevitable development which has only
waited for freedom of action; it may arise from
some sudden relaxation of self-oontrol allowing
the natural characteristics fuller play. 1t may
be that the whole strength and activity of the
man is declaring itself-faults and blemishes
along with better things; or it may be herald
of intellectual or moral decline.
Such speculations we can imagine to have
perplexed the friends of that excellent
Roman gentleman of whom we are told that
he was good man, full of sweetness, justice,
and nobleness, but he would read his "non-
sense verses'' in all companies-at the public
games and in private fessts, to sleeping and
waking people. Everyone was afraid of him;
and though he was good, he was not to be
endured. Whether this worthy could have
helped IL or not it is certain that there are
people constructed on so singular q mould
that they may be pronounced born oddities.
Education may strike out some fancies and
no education can reduce such persons to uni
formity. They act through life on some occult
principle of their own which outrages or
defes general custom. They cannot see things
rs others do, they have standard Of their own
on q hundred points where it were to be
wished they could adopt their neighbours.
Even with the will to conform, they do not
know how; they are literal where they should
act in the spirit of a social precept; they un-
derstand nothing of the things that among
other people are taken for granted; they learn
nothing through their eyes, nobody is a guide
or rule to them. They see no differences or
distinctions in things similar; they blunder
about times and seasons; they refine where
subtleties are out OF place; they go straight
through stone walls of convention, wholly
unconscious of the feat. Nothing that is OBJ
ViOus to ms is obvious to them; nobody Is like
them and they are like nobody, not even like
any other oddity. If they have good faoul-
ties, they set men talking of the eccentrioities
of genius, but in fact their good faculties
have nothing TO do with it.. There are more
odd people without intellectual excellence
any sort than with it; people perhaps who
pass with fair credit through the werld, but
never mix or harmonize with others; whose
WAYS are always different from other peoples
and who excite aversion or indulgence accord
ing to their temper or the nature of their de-
viatiOns from the approved model. Good and
amiable oddities are trial to their friends
but we recognize use in them; they aiord
relief to that uniformity OF habit and manner
which ia likely to become wearisome in al
over. civilized society. They freshen wha
might become a monotony of speech, more
especially when there is in them any power
expression; and even without being witty o
wise they suggest thought; they. put puzzlipl
questions, and force rs to defend our habitua
course of action. In fact, one Of these eceen
trio spirits, II amiable in his alterations, u
eften a favorite; his near belongings
would gladly see him subsde into the com
menplaee, but mere acquaintanoes are tole
sant. His absence Of mind, his breaches
sS, mis- wild invention in doing the wronI
ana missing the obvious one, ell propi