The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-10-29

|
indicated by some one form of facial
structure or movement. In the second
place, it should be remembered that all
Of us have a certain power of dissimula-
ton, and most of us. are accustomed to
put some kind of watch on our words and
actions. This is especially the case when
We have to confront a new observer. We
do not care, in most instances. to be
conned too easily by our fellows. Nearly
| everybody is accustomed to some meas
ure of reticence before strangers, while
there are few who, from a certain kind
of pride and force of individuality are
wont even to mislead casual observers
respecting their real aims and sentiments.
| Thus it happens that a person who is
ready at a glance to classify any new
| variety of character, runs the risk of ac-
| cepting, as an essential ingredient of the
phenomenon, something which is wholly
adventurous. 1t may be said, of course,
that the instances we have selected are
exceptional ones, that the great majority
of people are both too much alike and
too transparent in their words and actions
to occasion any serious difficulty to a
noter of mems natures and ways. That
there is a certain force in this considera-
ton may be readily granted. At the
same time, this fact does not alter the
truth of our contention, that in every
hasty judgment of character, there is al
ways an element of risk which forbids
the process being described as an intui-
tive one. So, too, we may concede that
a certain few possess an indisputable fac
ulty of quick perception of the complex
tiles of human character. Yet, when we
come to analvze this faculty, we find
that it resolves itself into a happy skill
in conjecture, which no doubt includes
certain range of past observation as well
as a Qnickness of imaginative insight into
other persons feelings, but which, never
theless, always remains, what Plato
would have called an Empirical knack,
wholly destitute of the exact certainty of
scientific inference. Those who see in
this conjectural skill mysterious power
of intuition, are dazzled by the instances
of correct prediction which they happen
to have witnessed, and fail to take account
of the errors to which this process is GER
tain to lead.
It would probably be an interesting in
quiry to trace out the various impulses OF
human nature, which serve to sustain and |
foster this Impotence in the observation |
of others. Some of the principal int1u- |
ences at work, will readily suggest them |
selves to a thoughtful mind. 1t isobviOus
that the mere qualification ofpride which |
all consciousness of knowledge, |
real Orimaginary, will not account for the |
peculiar force of this tendency. That is |
to say, though it is true that the motive |
of vanity leads men to imagine that they |
are conversant with many matters of |
which they are, in reality, profoundly ig- |
it does not explain why they |
should be especially liable to assume this '
of intelligence with respect to
their fellows 1t is evident that these
special influences must be looked for in
the peculiarities of the relations which |
people hold to one another. The follow
ing suggestions may, perhaps, roughly in
dictate the character of these influences.
First of all, it is manifestly of practical |
to everybody to gain some
thing like a definite opinion respecting
those whom he has to meet in social inter-
course. II, as some philosophers contend,
the first motive of all inquiry is the need
of definite basis for action, we may I'M
derstand how it is that most people are |
so eager to come to a decision respecting
Nothing is more embarrassing or annoy
ing, for example, to a hOspitably-dispOsed
lady, than to have to do with person
whose tastes and ideas are shrOuded in
By the very painfulness of the
she is driven to frame some by
pothesis as to the persons real character,
however little groupd she may have for
plausible conjecture. In this way, people
come to delude themselves that they have
a mans real character, when
they have simply been driven by the in
of conscious Ignorance to
purely hypothetical cOncep-
ton with regard to the object. Another
at work in these cases is form
Of the primitive fetishistic impulse to in
terpret everything outside ones own con-
sciOus life in terms of the same. The
same tendency which accounts for the
savage projecting his own feelings and in
tentiOn into tree or river accounts for
people transferring their own modes OF
thought and sentiment to every new mind
which come under their notice. 1t is
quite curious to remark the invet
eracy of this habit, even after ample OPP
pOrtunity has been given for discovering |
the endless diversities of individual tenn
permanent. Possibly there is a charm to
many persons in the spectacle of a mind |
up to mature years the naive |
belief that all the rest of the world must |
feel and act precisely as it does, and this
consideration may serve still |
further to confirm the habit. People are |
encouraged in the cultivation of this |
mode of regarding others, by the refec-
ton that it is taken to indicate a singu-
lar innocence of nature, and touching |
unfitness to deal with the harsh intrica- |
cies and contradictions of human charac- |
ter. However this may be, the habit does |
prevail in many minds, and is fruitful |
source of hasty inference and delusive |
May not one see illus |
tratiOns of this tendency in the great LA |
bility of both men and women to delude |
themselves with respect to the characters |
which they choose for the matrimonial |
relation? 1t is not only the innocent girl |
which commits this error, by fondly i'm |
agining i'll the absence of evidence, that |
her lover must necessarily share her own |
pure thoughts; the highly cultivated man, !
too, may fall into it, by taking it for |
granted that the young woman whom |
he selects as his most intimate companion |
feel the same high aspirations that he |
himself feels.
The other influences which appear to |
favour this impatience of belief with re- |
spect to the characters of others are spe- |
cial emotional forces. The operation of |
feeling ia sustaining assurance even |
when there is the minimum of evidence |
has been favorite theme philosophers. |
There are two modes of this operation,