The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-02-23
Tho Popular Capacity for Scandal.

The following trenchapt article from
Scribner's Monthly is we'll worth reading:
Zone of the most saddening and humili
ating exhibitions which human nature evel
makes of itself, is in its greedy credulity
touching all reports of the misdemeanori
of good men. If q man stood high as g
moral force in a community if he stand
political sin /; If he be looked up to by
any considerable number of persons as an
example of virtue if the whole tread and
! power of his life be in pure and high
direction if his personality and influence
render any allegations against his character
| most improbable, then most readily does
any such allegation find eager believers.
1t matters not from what source the SLAM
der come. Multitudes will be Influenced
by reports against good mans character
from one who would not be believed under
oath in any matter involving the pecuniary
interest of fifty cents. The slanderer may
be notoriously base-may be panderer to
may be q shameful sinner against social
virtue-may be thief, notorious liar, a
drunkard, q libertine, harlequin, all this
matters nothing. The engine that throws
the mud is not regarded. The white OBJ
ject at which the fonl discharges are aimed
ISLANDERS and lockers on is measured by
the success of the stain sought to be in
flicted.
As between the wording and the man
who processes to be guided and controlled
by Christian motives, all that is natural
enough. The man bound up in his selfish
and sensual delights, who sees Christian
fall, or hears report that he has fallen, is
naturally comforted in the idea that after
all, men are alike-that no one of them,
however much he may profess, is better
than another. 1t is quite essential to his
comfort that he cherish and fortify himself
and his course of life condemned. He list
ems with ready ear, and is Enthusiastically
glad. We say this is natural, however base
and malignant it may be; but when people
reputed good-nay, people protesting to be
Christians-shrug their virtuoEs shoulders
and shake their feeble heads, while foul
SANDER touches vitality the character of one
tinguishment of an influence, higher or
humber, by which the world is made bet
ter, we hang our heads with shame or raise
them with indignation. If euch a thing as
this ia natural it proves one thing, viz.
that these men are hypocrites. There is no
man, Christian or Pagan, who can rejoice
at the reputed fall of another man from
rectitude, without being scamp. All this
readiness to believe evil ofOthers, especial
ly those who have been eminently good, is
an evidence of conscious weakness under
temptation, or conscious procivitX to vice
that finds comfort in eminent c"mpauinn-
ship.
There is no better test of purity, and true
goodness than reluctance to think evil of
ones neighbor, and absolute incapacity to
believe an evil report about good men ex-
cept npon the most trustworthy testimony.
Alas, that this large and lovely charity is SO
rare But it is only with those who possess
this charity that men accused of sin against
society have an equal chance with those ac-
cused, under the forms of law, of crime.
Every man brought to trial for crime is pre-
sumed to be innocent until he is proved to
be guilty but, with the world at large,
every man slandered is presumed to be
guilty until he proves himself to be inno-
cert, aud even then it takes the liberty of
doubling tho testimony. Every man who
rejoices in scandal thereby auvertses the
fact of his own untrustworthiness; and
every man who is panied by it, uncon-
sciously reveals his own purity. He can
not believe bad thing done by one whom
he regards as good man, simply because
he knows he would not do it himself. He
gives credit to others for the virtue that is
consciously in his own possession, while
the base men around him, whether Christian
in name or not, withhold that credit be-
cause they cannot believe in the existence
of a virtue of which they are consciously
empty. When the Master uttered the
words: "Let him that is without sin among
you, first cast stone at her." he knew that
none but conscious delinquents would have
the disposition to do So; and when, under
this rebuke, every fierce accuser retired
overwhelmed, he, the sinless one, wrote the
woman's crime in the sand for the heavenly
rains to efface. If He could do this in case
of guilt not disputed, it certainly becomes
His followers to stand together around
every one of their number whom malice or
revenge assails with ISLANDERS to which his
or her whole life gives the lie.
In world full of influences and tenden-
cies to evil, where every good force is need
ed, and needs to be jealousy cherished and
guarded, thefe is no choicer treasure and
more benefcent power than sound char
acter. This is not only the highest result
of all the best forces of our civilization, but
it is the builder of those forces in society
and the State. Society cannot afford to have
it wasted or destroyed and it's instinct of
self-perservation demands that it shall not
be suffered. There is nothing so sensitive
and nothing 80 sacred as character and
every tender charity, and loyal friendship
and chivalrous affection, sand manly senti-
ment and impulse, ought to entrench them
selves around every true character in the
community SO thoroughly that breath of
c8lumny shall be ag harmless as an idle