The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-02-26
ONE OF THE LITTLE VICES.

toned to their undouDteu eHectS, say >
The Ave Maria. In the moral world
as in the physical, disregarded tribes
often lead to momentous conse-
uuences. The lighted match care
lessly thrown aside, yet setting fire to
a whole city block, finds its counter
part in the bitter word, hastily spoken,
but not infrequently causing storm
Of sinful passions to rage with fury
throughout whole social circle.
Occasional serious reflection upon the
real importance of what we are &C.
customed to regard as little" things
would probably result in our contribut-
ing somewhat more generously than
we do at present to our neighbors
happiness, and incidentally to our
own.
What a marvellous transformation,
for instance, would be effected in the
average household if all its members
should set themselves resolutely to
the practice of what st. Francis of
Sales calls the little virtues! He
enumerates them thus: Humility,
patience, meekness, benignity, bear
ing one another's burdens, condescen-
sion, softness of heart, cheerfulness,
cordially, compassion, forgiving in
iuries, simplicity, and candor"
Unfortunately, it is to the little
vices rather than the little virtues
that most of us are addicted; and the
qualities directly opposed to those
mentioned in the foregoing series Of
st. Francis come far more natural to
us than do the sweet dispositions
which he so highly commends. To
mention one such little vice, not at
all uncommon among people whose
lives are absolutely free from any
notable irregularities, and in whom
indeed great virtues are normally con-
spicuous,-what miserable growth
of disquiet and uneasiness and worry
and downright unhappiness springs
from irritability! Is there any other
slight defect of character which, in
the ordinary routine of everyday life,
is quite so destructive of peaceful
Joy and cordial kindness? Is there
any other minor fault which is quite
so successful in aggraVating ones
own discomfort and disturbing the
serenity of others?
The prevalence of this unlovely
fault obviates any necessity of def1n-
ing in what it consists. The child who
finds his father or big brother "as
cross as bear;" the schoolboy who,
from long observation of his teacher,
has
Learned to trace s
The days disaster in his morning
face"
the servant girl who confdes to the
inilkman that her master must have
got out of bed on the wrong side this
morning." or that her mistress is ''in
one of her tantrums today" the clerk
who comes out of his employers pri-
vate office with news that 'the old
man had like to have snapped my
head off," the subordinate official
who, in an interview with his superior,
meets with sharp inquiries and testy
answers that irresistibly suggest
"quills upon the fretful porcupine;"
the friend or acquaintance whose
kindly salutation is acknowledged by
merely a surly nod or the briefest icy
word,-all understand perfectly well
what is meant by an irritable person,
and all have reason to resent such
persons lack of an equable tempera-
ment.
The use of several adjectives in the
paragraph just concluded suggests a
reason for believing that irritability is
especially prevalent among English
speaking peoples. Writing of the
morality in words, some modern
philologist says that vivid idea Of
the slight account which Italians take
of human life may be gained from the
fact that their language contains
twenty-five or thirty distinct terms, all
meaning ito deprive of life" in one or
another of more than score of diff
ferent ways. Applying the same test
to our own language, we should be in
clined to form rather unfavorable
opinions of those whose variations of
ill-temper necessitate the use of
irritable, petulant, fretful, peevish,
querulous, waspish, cross, captious,
snarling, pettish, testy, snappish,
crusty, churlish, Grabbed, surly, I'M
civil, ill-natured, bitter, sharp, irasci-
BILE, touchy, choleric, hot, fiery, pep
perry, splenetie, acrimonious, and not
few other similar synonyms.
The comparative frequency or in
frequency of irritability among differ
ent nations is, however, purely an
academic question; the practical point
to which our attention needs to be-
directed is that all too often perhaps
in. our personal experience some of the
epithets quoted above may justly be
applied to ourselves. If this be the
case, if either habitually or occasion
ally, we are so lacking in self-control
VAS to inflict our spleen or ill-humor
on the members of our family, or on
our interiors, equals, or supefiors in
the circle of our acquaintance, then
we need to work forthwith a reforma-
tion in our mode of action. When we
are dominated by irritability we are
sure to give utterance to remarks
which, in themselves or in the man.
ner of our making them, are rude
and uncivil; and it is well to remem-
Der that, as DR.. Johnson puts it, "a
man has no more right to say an I'M
civil thing than to act one, no more
right to say a rude thing to another
than to knock him down."