The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1888-05-05
PLEASANT PEOPLE.


What boon to all his friends and acquaint-
ances pleasant person is 1t may be hard to
define pleasantneSs, but we find no difficulty
in recongizing it when we meet With it. Pleas
ant people are not always by any means the
most admirable of mankind, nor the most in
teresting; for it often happens that the quail
ties in man which are wortbiest OF esteem
are, for lack of other modifying elements, the
very ones which make against his agreeable
ness as companion; and person who does
not impress us as particularly pleasant may
nevertheless interest us very much by the dis
play of unusual mental or moral characters
tics, or from a complexity of nature which
seems to offer itselfas an enigma we are curious
to solve. Pleasant people may not even be the
most truly lovably, but they are litdble we
perhaps have no desire to make friends of
them in the deeper sense of friendship, but we
are glad when we meet them, and enjoy our
selves while in their society. The tie thus
formed though slight, is a real one, and be-
ieve that we should all do well to remember,
In the interest OF our closer friendships, the
attractive and cohesive force of mere pleasant
ness. The highest virtues and offices of friend
ship we are not called ON to exercise every day,
and in familiar intercourse we have not less,
but rather the more, need of making ourselves
pleasant, because of the times when our friends
will have to answer our drafts on their patience
and sympathy.
If we question what it is that goes to con-
stitute man or woman pleasant it appears to
be result of both temperament and character.
1t is hardly necessary to say that these are not
distinguished in common thought and speech
as clearly as they might be. Without attempt
ing any closer analysis, we may perhaps say
that temperament is a certain combination of
elements given us at BIRTH while character is
another set of powers and dispe sitions slowly
acquired and grown in us for the first, nature
Is responsible, our parents and ourselves for the
second
1t seems easiest to describe pleasant person
by negatives, although assuredly his pleasant
ness affects us as a most positive quality. To
begin With, such person must not be too much
'shut up i'll his own individuality" to use the
phrase of an English writer That is, he must
not be very reserved and concea atrated in his
emotions and affections, but have certain ex-
pansiveness of nature and OpenI ess of manner.
He must not be too fastidious, but able to take
people for what they are and what they are
worth to him for the passing moment and the
needs of the social hour. He must not be of
too intense nature, nor so preoccupied with
the serious aspects and duties of life that he
is unable to put them aside temporarily, and
lend himself to lighter thoughts and lighter
people. One of the pleasantest men | ever met
was one of the most hard-working, devoted to
a dozen good causes and public interests be-
side his personal and professional ones. None
OF these were made bore to others, and his
equable and kindly disposition, his readiness
to enter into other persons ideas, his interest
in literature and art as well as weightier mat
tiers OF politics and science, made him able to
please and be pleased by men and women of
the most diverse sorts. 1t has sometimes Struck
me forcibly with respect to such a man. How
pleasant he must be to himself-how comfort
able to live with every day