Year: 1873

A Friend with a Single Fault


A friend with single fault Have
YOU never formed one of little compa-
ny all engaged in talking about just that
one little fault of friend? To the rest
of us it is so apparent. If it were not
for the solitary flaw we say, the dear boy,
the dear girl would be perfect. Some
times it is fretfulness sometimes con-
ceit sometimes morbid establishment (;
sometimes touch of selfshness a dis
position to dwell upon the failings of
others; faculty for interference; fact
of attention to personal appearance /;
procrastination-or dear knows what.
Now is it not very much like night
mare-the way We live in the same house
with these people, year in and year out,
and see the petty fault growing bigger
and bigger, and can raise no voice
against it-can do nothing but say, " if,
if, if,"-" alas and alas


40 but we do speak J"


Yes, sometimes we do; and sometimes
the warning voice is enough. But the
tragedy appears in those cases where
either the warning cannot be given, or
where it ls UNDECIDED. A family might
be described as a succession of c3nventi-
cles, composed always of the same mem
bers, save that at each session different
member is absent, and ID by the others
apprehended and discussed in a way in
which he can neither apprehend nor dis
cuss himself.


1t has come to be considered point
of humor-to be played upon as may
happen-that we can see other peoples
faults so much better than our own.
Now while this is very true, it is also
very true that we do generally know our
own faults, have had at least side-glimp-
ses of them, and that they grow upon us
because we dread to apply the knife !;
because, to be honest, we are every one
of us shirks, more or less.


In these slight etcbings of character,
you know | do not care to seize upon
those patent vices-or Qet me call them)
follies-and virtues which faunt along
the street, and with which every one is
familiar enough; but rather to look up
from my desk at the ordinary man or
woman who goes past the window on the
lawn, or comes in to dust the room, or
spend an evening with me,-with his or
her ordinary failings and attainments.
10 other words, my gentle reader. moth
ing would please me more than to give
you the sensation of coming unexpect-
edly upon mirror; / should like you
to be startled at seeing your own face
look up at you from the page.


So my friend Philip hardly answers
my purpose as an example-he who be-
gan by being very fine in MS moral pur-
poses, and very clean in his person, who
gradually neglected his appearance till
he became more than untidy, and ended
in complete personal Generalization and
moral dirt. / saw how it all began; he
shirked his duty with regard to soap and
water. He knew he shirked his duty ;
knowing it, he did not cease to do so,-
and ungodliness followed uncleanliness
in natural sequence.


One of the signs oe advancing age is
our acceptance of certain foibles, Of
which our friends have told US, and
which up to this year of grace we had
been in the habit of looking upon as
mere accidental and transient pecuIiari-
ties. 1t is sad day for us when we
make that acceptance. There is some
hope for US when the Joke about our
prospect of being fifteen minutes late at
the door of heaven has certain sharp
freshness; but when we settle down into
the conviction that we are likely to be
lives behindhand all our-well, perhaps
the first gray hair has not been discov-
cred, perhaps the grasshopper is not a
burden, but We are "ageing."


The older and wiser grow the more
am l impressed with the idea of every
mans personal responsibility. Make
what allowance you will for taint in the
blood, sordid circumstance, and all that
| believe more and more that every soul
has chance. doubt if there is any
well deep and dark and smooth walled
enough to keep a poor devil down if he
is determined to get to the top of it. He
will win out if he wants TO hard enough.
1t is wonderful how good luck follows
the hospitable mind and honest endeav-
or.


wish my friend the parsOn would
hurry up that essay of his on How not
to go Mad l'-Scri6ner's tor October.


Those who cannot ride in their own
carriage can comfort themselves that It