Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-01-13

| covetous, and, to strengthen themselves
| in their sordidness, they employ the
J phrase to the detriment of others whose
character is yet uniformed, but whose ten.
dency is in the wrong direction.
The charity that begins at home is prone
to stay and end there And he who
breaches the doctrine is in constant danger
OF carrying its practice to a point of posi-
tive niggardliness.
Of kindred kind is "Self- preservation
is the first law of nature As everybody
knows, or ought to know, the meaning of
the axiom is literal and absol Cte. As such
it cannot be gainsaid. But it should be,
when it is put forward as a warning
against benevolence, as curb to any dis
position to help the needy. Self-preserva-
ton, being an instinct, needs no enforce
ment from proverbial popularity. They
that are perpetually telling US that it IS
the first law are usually the very persons
who might make us wish it were the last
law; for then they might SO forget them
selves for moment as to drop out OF the
world to which they add nothing but
bad example
" What is the good of having friends
unless you use them ?' is often loosely
asked but the friends are oftener Obliged
to answer seriously. The proverb is in
bad taste, to say the least, and its repeti-
ton evinces grievous want of sensibility,
if nothing worse. Friendship springs
from sympathy, from spiritual affinity,
from mutual understanding and apprecia-
ton, and ought to be a reciprocal incen-
tive to advancement, improvement, to a
larger and better life. To put it primarily
to material use is to degrade and profane
1t. The nature capable of understanding
or feeling friendship will be slow to ask
the rhetorical question unless playfully or
satirically. And such nature never will
and never can act upon it.
There is quite enough in this bustling,
necessarily prosaic world to dwarf and
destroy our ideals, without our volunteer
ing any cynical and superhuous aid there
to. A true friend is so willing and anx-
ious to assist us in every honorable way
possible, that we should be careful not to
give him excess Of opportunity. Besides,
to use a friend, ia the general sense of the
verb, is ignoble, and must soon result in
the fracture of friendship; for no friend
can long consent to be used without a GER
tain loss of scif-respect, without which
friendship is impracticable
No doubt there is a constant temptation
with many persons to employ their friends
10 their own advantage without thought of
reciprocity; and quoting the proverb
strengthens the temptation and justities
the habit. Never let the aphorism pass
your lips, however jocularly, lest you be
suspected, in the first place, of meaning
it, and secondly, lest you prompt others to
do what they shall eventually regret.
Guilt is always timid'' is one of the
phrases that must have been coined in the
mint Of ignorance. Tie student of hui
man nature knows that guilt, and that of
the deepest order, is very often so superla-
lively audacious that it cannot be fright
ened or abashed
What is termed wickedness is very diff
ferent actually from the thingitis theoret-
lcally. 1t is sincerely conscious of itself
(the popular notion is that it is ever adj
palled by its own image, and when it is
conscious it sees itself at a remarkably
propitious angle. Vice is its own vindi-
Gator through the very perversity of judg
ment that allows it to exist. It's continu-
ance lends it a hardness and firmness
which neither disapproval nor denuncia-
ton can soften or shake Guilt can and
will look rebuking innocence steadily in
the face, while sensitive and suspected
virtue shall be overwhelmed with cnnfu-
sion and modification.
Belief IN the proverb wrongs innocence
intellectually by causing it to be mistaken
for guilt and at the same time acquits this
OF its offense. If we wish to detect guilt,
we must discard the MAXIM or interpret
it by contrariety; for, whenever we
confront indubitable, clearly established
guilt, we shall be likely to find it gazing
as calmly and dehantly at us as does the
Sphinx at the sands of the surrounding
desert.
People like to be deceived" How
often we hear thIs Perhaps they do; but
what kind of people are they? They
must be peculiar, since they are never the
people we meet Everybody will bear
witness that his or her acquaintance hate
to be, and are angry at being, deceived.
They that are fond of deception are plain
~ those unknown, abstract folk who are
sure to be punished for the sins we com
nit and whom we love to regard meta
physically as the victims of vaguely-vio-
lated justice.
The trite aphorism in its truth or false
hood is of small consequence. Its mis-
chief is in its instigation to deceive
Most of us have sufficient tendency in
that direction without any verbal stimu-
liant or honeyed sophistry. The phrase is
trick put upon US wherewith to trick
our fellows. 1t is cunning device to
mollify our consciousness of doing wrong.
Not merely this, it proclaims as benevo-
lence what is manifestly a meanness on
our part; and we are so willing to appear
duped when we are not-our faults being
in question-that we appeal to maxims to