Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-08-12
SCRUPLES.
London Saturday Review

Ilei ana among these are scruples. I'm
scrupulous is term of just reproach; /;
the unscrupulous man is dangerous in
whatever capacity we have to deal with
him, but the man of scruples is not,
therefore, desirable as such. He may
be eligible and deserving, but we should
like him better without his scruples, for
nothing is graver barrier in social mat
ters than obtrusive scruples which we do
not share. Scruples are essentially pri-
vate things; when two people agree to-
gether in an objection or an opinion, we
view it in another light, and probably
call it something else. Scruples repre-
sent private judgment exercising itself
IN small matters; that is, they appear
small to common sense or to prevalent
public opinion, though they are large
and predominant TO the scrupulous mind
Not that scruples are independent of the
prevailing tone of thought in the world,
but they are the means by which some
persons take their share in it, aud they
constitute the originality of a certain
class of intellect-they furnish an oppor-
tunity for that seli-assertion which is a
natural object with thinkers of every
class aud grade.
OF course virtue has scruples. The
minuter duties of morality have, we may
say, an equal obligation with the weigh
tier matters of the law; but in one case
public opinion is accepted as exponent
and interpreter, while the scrupulous
! conscience owns no law but itself, and
sees no further than the letter. Honesty
OF the straightforward, social sort, agrees
that it is a sin to steal q pin, but it does
as it would be done by and, holding
itself justified by general usage, it takes
the pin on an emergency and does not
call it stealing. The scrupSlous person
goes pinless at the cost of being a less
competent and efficient member of the
body polite, but is not the less confident
and satisfied. The soruples which fairly
bear the character of scrupulosity are
those which warp the judgment and
obscure the perception of the relative
Importance Of things. The man who is
governed by them may be guide to
himself, but he is no guide for others ;
his conscience and his reason are not on
sufficiently good terms. And it may be
observed that nobody can be scrupulous
all round; a pet scrHple often makes a
clean sweep of collateral obligations.
The scrupulous temper is liable to large
and eccentric omissions where the con-
science is off its guard. People cannot
act as members of family or a COM
munity whose .notions of private duty
cover all their view and engross their
attention.
We live in this world in many capaci-
ties, all imposing moral duties, of which
common sense has to adjust the claims
where they seem conflicting; but com
mon sense, even candid and unselfsh
common sense, is despised and abhorred
by the mind possessed by a scruple, or
regulating itself by code of scruples.
The duties that cannot be reconciled, or
will not fit in, are set aside-overlooked
as not of obligation. We know of a
clergyman who had scruple against
reading any Of the words in italics which
occurred in the Lessons for the Day.
He simply passed them over as rot die
tated by inspiration. 1t was Indifferent
to him that he made nonsense of the
Word of God, which it was his Office to
! set forth; he saw one side of his duty so
very plainly that he saw nothing else,
and we need not say was utterly un-
persuadable Nor need scruples be of
this absurd type to show an equal want
Of grasp of the leading idea. 1t would
appear that the capacity for a large
general view is never found in coDjunc-
ton with this microscopic activity Of
conscience. All scruples are conscien-
tious, and carry with them sort Of
religious obligation. But it depends on
the character how deep this goes. Many
people scruple to play rubber who will
plunge into reckless speculation without
twinge. 1t was conscientious scruple
which induced Pepys, on receiving a
letter and discerning money in it, to
empty the letter before he read it, THAT
| might say | saw no money in the pa
per )" and this is only type of the ac-
ton OF great many scrupulous persons,
who desire to profit by the consequences
of certain course Of action without in
curing the responsibility of it. And,
short Of this, scruples constantly stand
in the way of an honest perception of
right by stopping at the letter. A mind
given to small scruples has the judgment
in leading things, and often misses the
flash Of truth amid the minute questions
which occupy it.
But, on the other hand, it is no easy
matter to settle what are scruples-that
is, conscientious demurs about small
things. What we're treated as such at
one time are afterward discovered to be
broad principles. Reformers are charged
with scruples and unnecessary notices,
but the scrupulous temper which fastens
naturally on minuti@ is not the reform
ing temper The so,colled scruples of
some minds have founded sects and par
ties, and changed the face of society. 1t
was quoted as an absurd scruple when
Lady Huntington, then Queen of the
Methodist" having got her daughter
named Lady of the Bedchamber, as she
would not let her play cards on Sunday.
Society would not apply this form to
such an object now. Real scruples, the
growth of certain habit of pind, are
not catching, we suspect; they ARE char
acteristic, though circumstances may
belriend and develop them