The Grenada gazette., 1888-01-14
GROSS ExAsoERATioN.
1Glschievous Results Of . Dangerous Tend.
ency Of the Times.

1Glschievous Results Of Dangerous Tend.
ency Of the Times.
Exaggeration is literally the heapine
together Of Individual fragments d
effect till you get something out Of all
proportion to the truth; and tho three
influences which are most frequently
at work in melting to true exaggera.
tion are humor, passion and morbid
scnsationalism. 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-
tion, as when Charles Lamb answered
Coleridge's question: Lamb. did you
ever hear me preach?" by stammer-
ing out: my dear fellow, I never
heard you do any thing elser' or
when Dickens made the Yankee apol.
ogist for the Western postman, who
had absconded with the money in the
Office, boast that tho defaulters IAN
swer to the despot and the tyrant is
that his bright 'ome is in the settln'
sum-" Exaggerations Of that sort, in.
stead Of misleading. tend by the gro.
tesqueness and their point to bring
home atruth which, withous sxaggera,
tion, might be missed. But the exag.
geration Of passion is q totally differ.
ont thing. and any thing but harmless.
As 1t proceeds from q state Of mind
that has no relation to Justice oi
thought, so it tends to produce
state Of mind that Is absolutely
unjust and to infame all
the dangers Of critical
situation. Such exaggerations pro.
ceed from the disposition to make the
worst of those who are opposing us.
and no disposition grows more rapid
", or is greater perverter Of tho
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 their 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 a sort Of
credulous confidence. And yet at the
present day, the exaggerations OF
morbid sensationalism are almost,
1t 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, aud declares that G ALI
gula was doing on innoc ent thing in
making his horse 4 consul, as compar-
ed with the choice Of Lord Lytton for
the Paris embassy, is at least talked
Of for<a day or two. il only to be
at The worst Of it is that the
for high seasoning Of the liter
ary food grows with what it feeds on,
till. like the appetite Tor
garlic it becomes so absorbing
that no food Is relished which
Is not drenched in it. tits not habit
due to passion. and practically it does
not often excite passion. No one will
leel at all more disposed to conde mn
either Lord Lytton or Lord Salisbury
lor the absurd language we have re-
Ierred to; rather less 50. The real cray
ing such monsEous language gratifies
s for stimuluA sensational al shock Of
Iome sort and 80 the tendency grows
o make all literary writing
'eries Of electric thrills or shiv-
RS to the reader-the result Of
which must be . total distortion
Il all healthy and simple habits Of
and seeing, and Of reporting
What VIC think and see. We deliber-
ltely believe that this sort ofexaggera.
ion Is even worse than the exaggera.
Ion Of passion. The exaggeration Of
'assion leads. no doubt, to bad blood,
INJUSTICE. strife, even murder-and it
hard to imagine any thing worse.
Iut It's still worse for any nation to
,et into the melodramatic mood, the
'abit Of living Its moral life on mere
instead Of living on the
read and meat Of wholesome every
ay truth. London Spectator. .