Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1886-07-01
THE HYPOCRITE OF FICTION.

/
A Suggestive Study of Certain Ele-
ments of Character-The Uncon.
sciousness of Design in True HyPoc-
risy.
[Frem Lcngman's Magazine]
OF course it can neither be reasonably de-
| MED that there is such vice as hypocrisy, nor
affirmed that its manifestations are particu-
larly rare. Hypocrisy is indeed unpleasant
ly common; but 1t is very different, much
less amusing and much more dangerous
quality than the counterfeit presentment
which stands as its substitute on the boards
of the stage and in the pages of the novel.
The one distinguishing peculiarity of the
hypocrite of fiction is that he is a conscious
and deliberate humbug. It is clear that if
this be the ordinary type of hypocrisy the
| successful hypocrite must be a singularly
clever person. He must possess in a high
degree number of qualities which, while
slngly more or less rare, are in combination
hardly to be found anywhere. He must
have insight into character that he may gauge
the gullibility of each victim; he must have
wonderful tact to keep him from mistakes
as to the best method of approach; he must,
for reasons too obvious to be particularized,
have fine histrionic gift, and he must more
over possess sufficient sympathy with true
religious emotion OF lofty moral impulse to
initiate its manifestations with some decent
approach to verisimiitude. A man of this
kind would have SO many resources that he
| would be extremely unlikely to tie himself
down to the very troublesome plan of max
| ing his way by affecting to hold convictions
with which he had no sympathy, and condi-
| tioning his life by altogether distasteful lmi-
| tations. The hypocrite OF real life is not,
save in those rare moments of introspection
which usually occur in solitude, a conscious
humbug; he does believe in himself and in
| his own professions, and this is Just what
makes him so successful and SO dangerous.
His life is indeed spent in two moral worlds
which have very little in common, but he is
| a naturalized citizen of both and feels as
much at home in the one in the other.
When it is discovered that some eminent
| financier who has lived in the odor of sancti-
| ty, taken the chair at religious meetings, and
| publicly "engaged in prayer" with much
| unction, has been for years raising money on
forged securities and appropriating to his
| own purposes the scanty store of the widow
| and the orphan which has been entrusted to
his care, people all at once jump to the con-
| clusion that his speeches and his prayers his
| pious phrases and his handsome subscrip-
| tions have been nothing but a series of clever
| tricks devised with the express purpose of
| hoodw1nking the public. They cannot un-
| derstand how man who in the seclusion Of
| his private Office concocts fictitious power
of attorney on Monday morning can possibly
| be sincere in expressing ardent desire for
the propagation of the gospel on Monday
| night. That the two actions are morally dis
cordant Is OF course plain, and the percep-
ton of their discordanee easily develops into
a conviction OF their irreconcilability save by
| the theory of deliberate deception. The
conviction is arrived at almost instinctively
which is certainly in its favor; but it is easy
| to show that it is radically false. That
mans religion, if sincere, eht to affect his
l NOR wit h,,f +bak
| it necessarily does affect it is a proposition
which can never be proved except by the
somewhat illogical process of denying sim
| cerity to every lofty emotien which does not
| produce lofty moral conduct. AS matter
of fact religion and philanthropy may be
| inf 'lged in quite sincerely as emotional lux
| ur.os, and it does not follow that because
| man really enjoys prayer meeting, and is
warmly interested in the welfare of savages
| three thousand miles away, that his whole
| conduct must be inspired by love for God
| aid for his neighbors. Human life, as it
really IS, does not possess the symmetry
| TDich philosophers and novelists claim for
| it. 1t Is thing of shreds and patches, and
| the patches are very harmonious both in
| shape and color. The mixed motives and
conflicting lines of conduct which character
| ize the real hypocrite can, however, only be
| intelligibly portrayed by writer in whom
great powers of analysis and synthesis are
combined; and as this combination is un-
| common, and is not needed for the ordinary
ends OF fiction, the hypoorite of the popular
| novel is the shallow and absurd seoundrel
| whose fancy portrait has been often paint
| ed for us. One writer of our day has indeed
| succeeded perfectly in setting before US a
credible representation of the genuine arti-
| cle-the hypocrisy of real life. In Mr. Bull
| st1ode, the Middlemarch banker we see a
man who is under the sway of a double set
of impulses which, though really discordapt,
are made to harmonic by sophisms which,
| because they make him comfortable, he rests
in as satisfactory until the fact of their in
herent rottenness is forced upon him by the
prospect of quickly coming exposure. Only
| when the course of events compels him to
| turn round upon himself and regard his life
| through the eyes of those whom he wronged
does he really feel that there has been a fatal
inconsistency between his professions and
his practice. The moral blindness, which
| was none the less real because it had been
| self-induced, enabled him to serve God and
mammon with equal fervor, and in a sense
with equal sincerity. His own success, and
the success of the religious and philanthropy
| ic causes in which he Was interested, had be-
| come bound together in his mind by very
| simple law of association; and it was natu-
raj enough for him to feel that so useful a
servant of God as Nicholas Bulstrode might
| fairly claim freedom from limitations which
had been laid down for the guidance of less
| active and valuable men. Some people may
| say that a of this order is not in the
strict sense of the word, hypocrite at all;
but this is only because he does not embody
| the curious ideal which they have evolved
partly from their moral consciousness, like
| the Germans camel and partly from an ac-
| emulation of hints derived from the circu-
lating library and the stage. If the Bull
strobe course of action be not hypocrisy, it
may safely be said that hypocrisy is not a
real, but an imaginary vice. If in our
search for hypocrite we refuse to be salts
fed with anything short of Mr.. Pecksniff,
We may as well abandon the quest at once,
for it is certain to be fruitless. We shall
find phoenix or salamander quite as soon
as a reality corresponding to the curious por-
trait of the conventional hypocrite of ordi-