The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-11-21
THE MODERN CYNIC.
His Contempt for What Others
Do And Say
The Literary. Priggish. Theatrical, Relig-
ious and Domestic yarieties-The
Last-Named the Worst Of All,
But Every One Grand
Nuisance"

But Every One a Grand
Nuisance"
In spite Of his name the cynic is not
altogether creature of recent growth.
having, by some process of natural
selection, developed into rudimentary
life very early in the history of man.
But of late years his race has enor-
mously increased, and it may be inter-,
esting to note some peculiarities of
being whose uses on earth are so small
and yet his increase SO rapid. To de-
scribe him generally as man who
admires nothing is too far vague to
admit of being accepted as definition.
Like all animals of complex machinery
he can not be defined in aphrase Man,
for instance-the genus to which he
belongs-has been defined great many
times but hitherto not with much sue
cess. He has been called a debating
animal, but rats hold sacred conclaves.
and gambling animal but l bel eve |
have seen monkeys gambling. SO with
the different species of man. There is
no possible phrase which can at the
same time exclude other species and
COMPREHENSIVE describe one.
1t is true that the modern cynic ad-
mires nothing which other men have
done. This, however. permits him to
concentrate his admiration the more
intensely on himself 1t may be also
said of him that he does nothing, but
then this enables him the more strongly
to respect himself for what he might
have done. 1t may be further said that
he attains to nothing; but then he has
the power of considering what he might
have achieved, and with what superior
brillancy of execution, had he chosen
to enter the arena His name is little
known to the outer world, perhaps little
respected by the circle to which he be-
longs. His kind may be subdivided
into several principal and very large
number OF subsidiary classes.
The literary cynic is, of course, the
first that demands attention. not be-
cause he is the most important but be-
cause he makes the most noise. He is
to be found in certain papers, daily and
weekly; in one or two magazines, and
scholarly, nor perhaps has his thought
so much depth as can be observed in
the works of the ancient philos-
ophers, but he makes up for these
defects by smartness and by an
overwhelming sense of superiority,
which, spite of . possibly kind
heart can not refrain from breaking out
into sneers. He acts as critic, either on
books or on men and women. If on
books. he has one rule to start with and
one method of treatment. An impossi-
BILE standard is set up-that standard
of excellence which our cynic would
reach himself, were he to write; and
then, this being implied rather than ex-
planned, he proceeds to show how far
short the writer has fallen. This done,
he next holds up to popular scorn any
stray bits where the author has plunged
into enthus; asm. fallen into genuine
feeling, or become a victim to virtue
and goodness All these backslidings
are carefully picked out and paraded,
labeled as ''gush." To prevent "gush, p"
indeed, is the literary cynic's chief
function.
Care must be taken to distinguish be-
tween him and another of different
tho ,,r;g p,;gvisbness bos its
own self-resnect. or rn1hcr veneration
Rut nrios bclievc in each other. they
see in each other he virtnes When thev
odm;ra in tlen.selyos AMI tbav onsb
solemnlv over tbem nrio can not
contain bimsclf ..Sec y besavs sneak.
mo Of another but LOOKING in the glass
the while ..sec how rooj he l. bow
well he does us work what an earnest
sense of dirty he has what feelinys of
resnonsibility. what contemnt for tho
commoner n,ibs ~ frivolnms mon o.,
For the nrio is potl,ing w,thout b;s
sonee Of dutv and n;t,.;n5 eonton,,,t fn,.
otber-,oen Va co,n,,b, mon o,a 40
sniscd ton l adm, nv tba cvnio Int
;n a d;fFora,t ,.o, ~ s,,oo,s - 80.
foll;es in which he ;o;,s. ba das,,;sas
orr virtues some Of which ba sh aros
he chris his lin at ne hacansa we 10 orr
dutv without ~, oa,.nost sonss ~ w.
snons.h.iifv. and vat he has NON none II him
self The nr;m IN font honastl,, t,;ns -
nnssass tho ro,fso,,;t, he ad,,,;ra! h',t =; "
the attam,,Y' s,snnas a nnro thsr ,,,or
tai sbare If tbem Tho cvn;c calls The
attention of the world to our shar,e,oss
want ,of these ornaments ~ the so,,1
and thinks II sIn,erfIno,,s 70 nut then,
on bimself Tho litararv cvn;r ~, n,a,,
and Women is no,.ba,, n,pra ~ hnn,a
than with bo,tks for here are great
many hooks ,yhioh he co., no. toreh -
ali for want of the neeessarv scholar.
shin Nov everybody oar fab ~ MOI,
and women AMI as,ec;olJy ~ wov,an
Here his most telling method Of an.