146 TRUTH, PATHOLOGY, AND PUBLIC. 



No doubt these qualities are too often thought to 

 mark their possessor as false, and it is beyond ques- 

 tion that they may be used in support of falsehood 

 as well as in aid of truth. Yet there is a form of 

 blarney to be found in all grades of society perfectly 

 legitimate when it is the offspring of geniality. It 

 is an art not unknown to the fashionable practi- 

 tioner ; perhaps you may find occasion to practise 

 it. Be tender at least with feelings that are tender 

 and sore, and ever when inclined to prattle remem- 

 ber and beware. It is the man who is looking out 

 with clear and honest eyes, not thinking of himself, 

 that has most time to study his neighbours and 

 become a true tactician ; while they who rush in- 

 considerately into every false position have most 

 difficulty in emerging with clean hands ; and the 

 tongues which go spinning for ever like tops are 

 they the burden of whose discourse is most fre- 

 quently an hum. It is the pace that kills. Of such 

 an one, had not Johnson objected to playing upon 

 words, it might be said in a sense far different from 

 what he intended, " Nullum quod tetigit non 

 ornavit," for he adds legs and arms to every story 

 he takes up. 



Am I wrong then in considering honesty an art, 

 and a very difficult one too ? " An honest man's 

 the noblest work of God," says Pope in his " Essay 



