Year: 1875

VIII tNtiN hoiai 'ttuildiltN II ulSlIHcllN y
| indicated by some one form of facia
| structure or movement. In the second
| place, il should be remembered that all


of Us have certain power of dissimula-
| ton, and most of us are accustomed tC


put some kind of watch on our words and


actions This is especially the case when
we have to confront new observer. We
| do not care in most instances, to he
conned too easily by our fellows. Nearly
| everybody is accustomed to some meas


urc of reticencc before strangers, while
there are few who, from Il certain kind
| OF pride and force of individuality are
wont even to mislead casual observers
respecting their real aims and sentiments.
Thus it happens that a person who is
ready at glance to classify any new
variety of character, runs the risk of ac-
Cepting, as an essential ingredient of the
phenomenon, something which is wholly
adyentitious. II may be said, of course,
that the instances we have selected are
exceptional ones, that the great majority
of people are both too much alike and
too transparent in theirwords and actions
to occasion any serious difficulty to a
noter OF mems natures and ways. That
there is certain force in this considera-
tion may be readily granted At the
same time, this fact does not alter the
truth of our contention, that in every
hasty judgment of character, there is al
ways an element of risk which f0rbids
the process being described as an intui-
tive one. so, too, we may concede that
certain few possess an indisputable fac
ulty of quick perception of the complex
ities of human character. Yet when we
come to analyze this faculty, we find
that it resolves itself into happy skill
in conjecture, which no doubt includes a
certain range of past observation as well
as a q"ickness of imaginative insight into
other persons feelings, but which, never
thcless, always remains, what Plato
would have called an impirical knack,
wholly destitute of the exact certainty of
scientific inference. Those who see in
this conjectural skill mysterious power
of intuition, are dazzled by the instances
of correct prediction which they happen
to have witnessed, and fail to take account
of the errors to which this process is GER
tain to lead.


1t would probably be an interesting in
quiry to trace out the various impulses of
human nature, which serve to sustain and
foster this impatience in the observation
of Others. Some of the principal intiu-
ences at work, will readily suggest them
selves to thoughtful mind 1t isobvious
that the mere qualification ofpride which
attends all consciousness of knowledge,
,,..I1 4, 4 lo
peculiar force of this tendency. That Is
to say, though it is true that the motive
of vanity leads men to imagine that they
are conversant with many matters of
which they are, in reality, profoundly ig-
norant, it does not explain why they
should be especially liable to assume this
appearance of intelligence with respect to
their fellows. II is evident that these
special influences must be looked for in
the peculiarties of the relations which
people hold to one another. The follow
ing suggestions may, perhaps, roughly in
diCate the character of these influences.
First of all, it is manifestly of practical
importance to everybody to gain some
thing like a definite opinion respecting
those whom he has to meet in social inter
course. II, rs some philosophers contend,
the first motive of all inquiry is the need
of definite basis for action, we may un-
derstand how it is that most people are
so eager to come to decision respecting
the dispositions of their acquaintance.
Nothing is more embarrassing or annoy
ing, for example, to a hospitably-disposed
lady, than TO have to do with person
whose tastes and ideas are shrouded in
mystery. BY the very painfulness of the
situation, she is driven to frame some hy-
pothesis as to the persons real character,
however little ground she may have for
plausible conjecture. In this way, people
come to delude themselves that they have
ascertaincd mans real character, when
they have simply been driven by the in
conveniences of conscious ignorance to
construct purely Hypothetical concep-
tion with regard to the object Another
influence at work in these eases is a form
of the primitive fetishistic impulse to in
terpret everything outside ones own con
sciOus life in terms of the same. The
same tendency which accounts for the
savage projecting his own feelings and in
tcntion into tree or river accounts for
people transferring their own modes of
thought and sentiment to every new mind
which come under their notice. 1t is
quite curious to remark the invet-
eracy of thi, habit, even after ample op-
portunty has been given for discovering
the endless diversities of individual tenn
perament. Possibly there is charm to
many persons in the spectacle of mind
retaining up to mature years the naive
belief that all the rest of the world must
feel and act precisely as it does, and this
aesthetic consideration may serve still
further to confirm the habit. People are
encouraged in the cultivation of this
mode of regarding Others by the refec-
ton that ii is taken to indicate singu-
lar innocence of nature, and touching
unfitness to deal with the harsh intrica-
cies and contradictions of human charac-
ter. However this may be. the habit does
prevail in many minds, and is a fruitful
source of hasty inference AMI delusve
misconceptions May not one see illus
trations of this tendency in the great liza
bility of both men and women to delude
themselves with respect to the characters
which they choose for the matrimonial
relation? 1t is not only the in, ocen, girl
which commits this error, by fondly i'm
agining in the absence of evidence, that
her lover must necessarily share her own
pure thoughts; the highly cultivated man,
too may fall into it, by taking it for


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