New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-04-02
I,rGUs UISE AND FOOLISH.

This year the Festival of the Fools fell
upOn Il day demanding decorun. Perhaps
GOOD solid sermon might have been properly
preached yesterday upon the immortality OF
ALWAYS looking out for the abSurditleS, the
weaknesses, and the fOiblcs of our ncghbors.
II is told pleasantly of Goethe that, when
in a bcer-ccllar the company was inclined
70 make mirth out of the foblcs of poor
Jung-StllinG, the young poet rcbuked the
icercrs and denounced their lcyity as I'M
timely and indecent. God has not given the
same gifts to all, and yet those to whom He
has given the rarest are not without their fol-
lies. if the world could but find them out. Nor
should it lie forgotten that the weakness OF
one of our kind goes to The general discredit of
the whole race We are all of one family and
came of one father. The man who fools
another to-day may himself be made fool oi
tomorrow. Who Of lis goes armed cap-a-pie
against the light lances of rdicue' No one
gets very far along in life without an uneasy
consciousness that on various past occasions
he has made mistakes, Judged immcthodlcaiIy,
decided logically, and 0yercstimatcd his own
ability to accomplish some particular object
We all encounter notifying catastr0pheS
which the world may know nothing Of, but
which we know well enough. The Fates have
many times made fools of Us in April and all
the months of the calendar, but let the world
find ont how many, if it can. 1t Is not for liz
to bear witness against our own soundneSs Of
mind. We keep our secrets, and are careful
how we set the table in a roar at our expense.
There is nothing in which man shows hlS
character more plainly than in his jesting.
If there he so much as a grain of malice i'll
his heart its presence there will be betrayed
whenever he rallies a companion or plays the
least trick upon another's credulity or presence
of mind TO give actual bodily pain for the
sake of diversion is to play the brute, or at
least argues but a dull perception OF the manly
and becoming; and we may say the same Of
bilious righteousness excited by physical in
iirmitics. The test OF badinagc is in its deli
cacy and indOmitable good nature; in its
willingness TO take as well us TO gave, and III
its acknowledgment of the restraint imposed
by good breeding and respect for the man
hood of its object. In this Il gentleman makes
no mistakes, while vulgaran makes nothing
else.
After Ill, it might not have been out Of
place to say, even IN a pulpit, that practical
whether upon the first of April or upon any
other day. There may at first be more
thoughtlessness than malice in their perpetra-
ton, but the habit of INDUCING in them is
sure to degenerate into something too much
like ill-will to be encouraged. To take advan-
tage of the dull perceptions of our neighbors
is in kind if not in degree, TO make butts OF
idiots or game Of lunatics. How do We know
that our turn will not come tomorrow IF
we are wise ut all, we find out, without much
assistance, that we are not so wise as we might
be. Why should we, who are so cunning in
working in our own despite, so constant in
failure, SO royal in resolution and such pau
pers in accomplishment, put on knowing airs
at the expense of some fellow mortal who is
az least as intelligent as we are Fun, pure,
innocent, and harmless, is wholesome, and
other things being equal, may prolong life as
it is said to do ; but the fun which subjects
its object to annoying ridculc, and disappoinCs
or mortifes him, will be avoided by every
body who respects himself and properly re-
spects the rights of others. So much the
preacher might have told us yesterday, and so
taught real bit of morality as worthy of
honor as any abstract mOTsel OF speculative
theology.