The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-09-18
SCRUPLES.
From The Saturday Review.

| There are some things of which we
| should have neither too much nor too
little; and among these are scruples.
INSCRIPTIONS is term of Just reproach
| the inscriptions man is dangerous in
| whatever capacity we have to deal with
him, but the man of scruples is net
therefore desirable as such. He may
be eligible and deserving, but we should
like him better without his scruples, for
nothing il a graver barrier in social mat
| ters than obtrusive scruples which We
do not share. Scruples are essentially
private things; when two people agree
together in an objection of an opinion,
we view it in another light, and prob.
ably call it something else. Scruples
represent private judgment exercising
| itself in small matters that 10, they ap-
pear small to common sense or to prev
alent public opinion, though they are
large and predominant to the scrupu-
lous mind. Not that scruples are inde-
pendent of the prevailing tone of thought
in the world, but they are the means by
which some persons take their share in
it, and they constitute the originality of
a certain class of intellect-they furnish
an opportunity for that self assertion
which Is a natural object with thinkers
of every class and grade.
OF course virtue has scruples. The
minuter duties of morality have, we
may say, an equal obligation with the
weightler 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 let
ter. Honesty of the straightforward
social sort agrees that it lisa sin to steal
a pin, but it does as it would be done
by; and, holding itself justified by tho
general usage, it takes the pin on an
emergency and does not call it stealing.
The scrupulous person goes pinless at
the cost of being less competent and
efficient member of the body polite,
but is not the less confident and salts
fed. The scruples which fairly lear
the character of scrupulosity are those
which warp the Judgment and obscure
the perception of the relative import
ance of things. The man who is gov
erne d by them may be q guide to him
self, hut 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 scrupu1ous
all round; pet scruple often makes q
clean sweep Of collateral obligations.
The scrupulous temper is liable to large
and eccentric omission where the con-
science is off its guard. People can not
act as members Of a 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 capao-
itiea, all imposing moral dutie 8, of which
common sense has to adjust the claims
where they seem conflicting; but COM
mon sense, even candid and unselfish
common sense, is despised and abhorred
by the mind possessed by scruple, or
regulating itself by a code of scruples.
The duties that can not be reconciled,
or will not fit in, are set aside-over-
looked as not of obligation. We know
of clergyman who had a scruple against
reading any of the words in italics
which occurred in the lessons for the
day. He simply passed them over as
not dictated by inspiration. It was in
different to him that he made nonsense
of the Word of God, which it was his
office to set forth /; ne saw one eide of
his duty SO very plainly that he saw
nothing else, and we need not say was
utterly unpersuadable. Nor need
scruples be of this absurd type to show
an equal want of grasp of the leading
idea. 1t would appear that the capac-
ity for O large general view is never
found in conjunction with this micro
scopic activity of conscience. All
scruples are conscientious, and carry |
with them q sort of religious obligation.
But it depends on the character how
deep this goes. Many people scruple |
to play a rubber who will plunge into |
reckless speculation without twinge. |
It was n conscientious scruple which |
induced Pepys, on receiving letter and |
discerning money in it, to empty the |
letter before he read it, "that 1 might |
say 1 saw no money in the paper" and |
This is only type of the action of a
great many scrupulous persons, who
1esire TO profit by the consequences of
/ certain course of action without incur-1
ing the responsibility of it. And,
'hort of this, scruples constantly stand
n the way of an honest perception of
light by stopping at the letter. A mind
yiven to small scruples has the judg-
nent in leading strings, and often misses
he flash of truth amid the minute ques.
ions which occupy it. Perhaps the
most com on form of hypocrisy is this
elf deception.
But, ON the other hand, it is no easy
natter to settle what are scruples-that
), conscientious demurs about small
hings. What were treated as such at
ne time are afterwards discovered to
Q broad principles. Rsformers are
harged with scruples and unnecessary
icetIes, but the scrupulous temper
hich fastens naturally on minutie is
OF the reforming temper. The so.called I