The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-11-25
EVERY MAN HIS OWN FOOL.

1t is said of many men that tho only way to
manage them Is to climb up on the blind side.
The way to their hearts and Wills is through
their weakness. There 10 no fair and open
way by which they can be controlled. They
have slipped into the grooves of chance and
routine so tffectually that the indiscri bable
quality which call tact alone brig
them to oor wishes. This is supposed TO be
men when they reach the ripper ears of discre-
tion, and become confirmed in their ways;
yet the mother with half q oozen children will
remind yon that it takes separate management
for each one, ana the best system of education
implies the separate and personal training of
each child, which means the euocessful con-
troll of his foolish part or weakness. Then,
again, our knowledge of human nature is
marked by our regard for this same quality. IL
is the knowledge of our defects, the possession
of each mans secret. the ability always to
touch him on his weak side.
1t is thus that the fact of our weakness
works to personal disadvantage at the
same time that 1T works for the advantage of
designing men W no WISH to put us under obii.
cations to them. This aiming ct ones weak
side is the life of the professions. The
lawyer gains his case by understanding
how to fatter the jury. The physician uses
the Imagination of the patient as an aid to the
natural effect of medicine. The clerk sells his
goods, noL their merits, but by hatteripg
the conceit of his customers. This aiming at
each ones weakness IL one of the irrepressi ole
iustincts by which you can trace original sin.
1t is what We all use in playing off the one
against the other 10 the contests of life. Some
would call it the mask of the heart 1t has q
special name in each language and in each
dialect. 1t ia the fact which points the cpl
gram and gives character to proverbs. 1t is
the underlying fact which is always counted
on in affairs. 1t enters into every business
operation, as one of the conditions of success
that you can take advantage of one steal D
march upon him and trade would Lose hair
it's zest and a large portion of it's profits if it
were not prime factor of success.
1t is said that man is nearest to being o
simpleton when he is in love, that his weak
nesses discover themselves unconscously to
himself in those moments of supreme happi-
| ness, and yet man slightly intoxicated has
been known to act the fool vastly better. 1t
| is strange that what plays 30 important part
in life should not be q virtue, bot is as GER
| tsinly it's foil. The soft side of q man may not
impress you most, but it is decidedly more
agreeable than being thrust against the sharp
points of angular people. If women are nat
urally keener than men, they certainly have
an offset in being more gnllible, and the very
out of their dress. the adornments of the per-
son, show that wom&n's weakness is the cou-
| epiouous feature of her life. 1t would make
them hideous and strange if they Lost this
| amiable characteristic. 1t constitutes part OF
| the delicate charm which invests their persons
| and gives interest to their manners.
| Yhe literary world furnishes it's quota of ex
ample in hicn authors have yielded to the
soft entreaties of their admirers or lost them
| selves in lsbors to outdo others. 1t ia a ia.
miliar proverb that great genius is closely
| allied to weakness, and every one can recall
the vanities and peculiarities of authors from
Milton's well.known severity towards his
daughters who lent him their eyes when
blindness deprived him of the use of his own.
| to the vsgaries of Wagner in the furnishing of
! his rooms. 1t is half the fun in reading the
life of De Q Q,incey, OF Oliver Goldsmith, or
Charles Dickens, or Walter Savage Lspdor, to
see how they disported themselves. You ad-
mire the genius and laugh over the folly and
| would miss the one as much as the other if
either were absent from the personal history.
| Now all this proves, if we are to sum mp our
| conclusions, that men and women are intense
~ human, and if any are lifted above their
fellows by unusual gifts, the law of compensa.
tion places them at some points in personal
character upon the plane of one common hu-
| manity. 1t is fine thing to be q genius, but
almost the necessary adjunct is that the same
person in some things shall be Ounce. 1t is
] reasonably certain then that every one has q
soft side, weak point, and that this element
of weakness not only makes the fun that
| sweetens life, buL enters an important
| element into all the departments of human
thought and action. The moral is to have
great charity for the soft side of others, in
the hope that they may have due regard for
yours.