The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1871-09-16

|
to the verge of destruction. They
do all this mischief, not for want of
good will, but for want of defniteness
of perception and are as sorry as you
are when they make pi and not
legible sheet. Their desire is good,
but vague desire to help is equal to
no help at all, or even worse it is
positive evil, and throws you wrong
by Just so much as it attempts to set
you straight They are as unsatis-
factory if you try to help them. They
are in evil case and you are philan-
thropically anxious to assist them.
You think that one vigorous push
would lift the car of their fortunes
out of the rut in which it has stuck,
and you go to them with the benevo-
lent design of lending your shoulder
as the lever. You question them as
to the central fact which they wish
changed; for you know that in most
cases misfortunes crystallise round one
such evil centre, which being removed,
the rest would go well. But your va
que. friends can tell you nothing.
They point out this little superficial
Inconvenience, that small remeditable
annoyance, as the utmost they can do
in the way of defniteness but when
you want to get to the core, you find
nothing but a cloudy complaint of
general ill-win or universal run of
untoward circumstances with which
you cannot grapple. To cut off the
| hydra's head was difficult enough;
but could even Hercules have decap-
itated the Djinn who rose in vol
ume of smoke from the fisherman's
jar? 1t is the same in matters of
health. Only medical men know to
the full the difficulty of dealing with
vague people when it is necessary that
they should be precise. They can
localise no pain, define no sensation
if the doctor thinks he has caught
hold of one leading symptom, it fades
away as he tries to examine it; and,
probe as he may, he comes to nothing
more definite than a pervading sense
of discomfort, which he must resolve
into it's causes as he best can.
| So with their suspicious and va
que people are often strangely suspl-
cious and distrustful. They tell you
in loose kind of way that such or
such man is rogue, such or such
a woman no better than she should be.
You ask them for their data-they
have none; you suggest that they are
mistaken, OF at least that they should
hold themselves as mistaken until
they can prove the contrary, and offer
Jour version of the regulations asper-
sed; your vague friends listen to you
amiably, then go back on their charge,
and say, II am sure of it (which
ends the conversation. They rely on
their impression, as other people rely
ON known facts, and foggy belief is
to them what mathematical demon
stration is to the exact.
In business matters they are simply
maddening. They never have the
necessary papers; they do not answer
letters they confuse your questions,
and reply at random or not at all and
they forget all dates and details.
When they go to their lawyer on bust
ness, they leave certificates and drafts
behind them; lockedu up where no one
can get at them; or if they send di-
rections and the keys, tell the servant
to look for an oblong blue envelope
in the right hand drawer, when they
ought to have said square white
parcel in the left. They give you va
que commissions to execute and you
have to find your way in the fog to
the best of your ability. They say
they want something like something
else you have never seen, and can
not give an address exact. But apart
from the personal diseomforts to
which vague people subject them
selves, and the absurdities of which
they are guilty, one cannot help spec
ulating on the spiritual state of folks
to whom nothing is definite, and no
question of faith clearly thought out.
| Convictions based on imagination,
unsupported by facts or proofs, are as
worthless in a moral as in a logical
point of view; but the vague have
nothing better; and whether as po-
litieians OF as pietists, though they
are warm partisans, they are but fee
bic advocates, fond of hourishing
about large generalities, but impos-
sible to pin to any point and unable
to defend any position. To those
who must have something absolute
and precise, however hmited-one
inch. of firmly laid foundation ON
which to build up the remainder-it
lis a matter of more wonder than envy
how the vague are content to live for
ever in a haze which has no clearness
of outline, no defniteness OF detail,
and how they can make themselves
happy in a name, calling their fog
faith, and Herewith counting them
selves blessed.-Chimney Corner.