New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-06-21

Nor is it strange that mon resort to this mas
Querade; for it is terribly successful. Inc
great ones Of to-day wear the clothes OF the
great ones Of yesterday. IL Is the hignt Oh
success tn be like somebody else who Is an
undeniable historical model. There arc scores
of reputable writers who have no more or1gi-
paity than q hooking bird. The boy just
going out of petticoats is told to be ike
the boy who has just gone into breeches;
and ALWAYS in tho schools, there are models
taller by an inch or so for the short ones 10
follow. This copying fills the world with FAC
SMILES and repetitions, so that every acute OBJ
server could catalogue and classify his ac-
qnaintances in groups of twenty Dromios ana
as many Antipholuses Physiognomlsts teli US
that no face is just like another; and IT Is
equally true that not one blade OF striped
grass is exactly like another blade yet still IN
the general effect they are identical through
the whole bush. So it is with our fellow
creatures. There is difference; but as to
essentials, it isn't worth talking about.
When the drunken lieutenant In the play
snivcls: "Reputation, reputation, reputation
80, have lost my reputation J" we do not
pity him at ALL since he has only lost some
thing to which he was not entitled. 80 when
a clergyman, who should be the most proper OF
men within and not merely in his outer lie
and his conversation, is detected IN some
scandalous doing, while we may mourn mode
rateIy for him as becOmeth the charitable,
there should be no limit to our howls at our
own folly in having been fooled by him. 90
at least a cynic would say. Why did mt we
know him bctterf When a public man turns
out venal and no patriot, or banker elopes
with the cash of widows and orphans, the
world opens its foolish eyes and wonders how
it could have been so blind. Yet, in spite of
its sef-rcprOaches, it is MT at all to blame. Ii
did MT know any better, simply because In the
nature of things it couldn't know any better.
The man who was in rude health yesterday
when we shook hands with him. breaks out
with the smallpox to-day. We do not censure
our own carelessness, because we were not
careless-were but the victims OF chance. Now,
il we are to count no mortal happy until
he is dead, so we are to reckon no character
impregnable in this earthly stage of its proba-
ton. The vicissitudcs of life have no shape
by which we may at once recognize their i'm
pending danger. Nor do they act singly, but
combination of circumstances" The wiser
religious teaching is, that we are to work out
our salvation "wth fear and trembling that
is. always with distrust of ourselves 1t is a
good provision that we dc not naturally extend
this dstrust to others.
For of all things in the world the nissan
thropy, suspicion and distrIst of the pessi-
mist are to be avoided. When one good man
falters and fails and falls, it is only the fools
who cry ont: "There is no goodness" Well,
if there is no goodness, what is this evil of
which they complain 80 sharply If there be
no such thing as true and pure character,
whence this notion of false aud foul Onef
Whatever happens, whoever staSgers, whatso-
ever is found out, however awful "deyelop-
"mcnts' may be, let us not bemire ourselves
in a slough of generalization There can be
no such thing as failure unless there can be
success there can lie no such thing as bad
character unless there can be a good one.