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- 
quentlyan 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 
