The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1888-01-12
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n1SssAisvous nssults - . Dsngsrsas xsna.
eney Of the Times.
Exaegeration Is literally the heaping
together Of Individual fragments o.,
effect till you get something out Of all
proportion to the truth; and the three
Influences which are most frequently
At work in melting to true exsggera-' !
ton are humor, passion and morbid
ationalism. The exaggerations Of
true humor are, Of course, not only
usually harmless, but often even some
thing better They point out the dan
gers Of growing tendency to distor-
ton. as when Charles Lamb answered.
Coleridge's question; Lamb. did you
ever hear me preachP" BY stammer-.
ing out: my dear fellow, I never,
heard you do any thing elsel'' or
when Dickens made the Yankee apol-,
ogist for the Western postman. who,
had, absconded with the money in the
Office, boast that the defaulters IAN,
swer to the despot and the .tyraut Lei
that his bright 'ome is in the settin',
sum-" Exaggeratlons Of that sort in :.
stead OF misleading. tend by the gro-,
tesqueness and their point to bring
home truth which, without exaggera-
ton, might be missed. But the exag-
geration Of passion is totally differ
ent thing. aud any thing but harmlesA
As 1t proceeds from state Of mind
that hos no relation to justice Of
thought, so IL tends to produce .
state OF mind that Is absolutely
unjust and to inf1ame all
the dangers Of a critical
situation. Such exaggerations pro-,
ceed from the disposition 10 make the
worst Of those who are opposing us
and no disposition grows more rapid.
", or is greater perverter Of the
truth. As rule. of course. we are
pretty certain to estimate those who
are opposed to us, even when we make
the highest effort to estimate them
truly, beneath thoir true worth; but II
once we give up that effort and yield
to the temptation to blacken them.
there is no distortion Of the truth too
monstrous to excite In us q sort Of
credulous confidence. And yet at the
present day, the exaggerations Of
morbid sensationalism are almost,
II not quite, as mischievous
as those of the bad passions.
There is such diseased app elite in
the world for being horri fed, that
journalist who only tells Lord Sails
bury that he has made serious error
in sending Lord Lytton to Paris is
hardly list. ned to; while one who calls
him Caligula, and declares that G ALI
gula was doing an innoc ent thing in
making his horse q consul, as compar.
ed with tho choice Of Lord Lytton for
the Paris embassy, 10 at least talked
Of for q day or two II only to be
laughed at The worst of 1t is that the
appetite for high seasoning Of the liter
ary food grows with what It feeds on.
till. like the appetite for
garlic, 1t becomes so absorbing
that no food Is relished which
10 not drenched in IL tits not habit
due to passion, and practically It does
not often excite passion. No one will
feel at all more disposed to conde nm
either Lord Lytton or Lord Salisbury
for the absurd language we have re-
ferred to; rather less 50. The real crav.
ing such monstrous language gratifles
is for q stimulus q sensational shock Of
some sort and 30 the tendency grows
to make all literary writing
series Of electric thrills or shiv-
ers to the reader-the result Of
which must be total distortion
Of all healthy and simple habits Of.
thinking and seeing, and Of reporting
what we think and see We dcliber.
ately believe that this sort Of fexsggera.
ton Is even worse than the exaggera-
ton Of passion. Tho exaggeration Of
passion leads, no doubt to bad blood,
injustice, strife, even murder-and IL
is hard to imagine any thing worse.
But tits still worse for any nation to
get into the melodramatic mood, the
habit Of living its moral life ON mere
stimulantA instead Of living on the
bread and meat Of wholesome every.
day truth London Spectator.