( 180 ) 
GOOD name, as an old proverb runs, is rather to be chosen than great 
riches, or than precious ointment. 
’Tis the immediate jewel of the soul 
The purest treasure mortal times afford. 
Give me this, and I can face the frowns of fortune—can be pointed 
at as the child of poverty, and still know what it is to be happy. Take this 
away, and you strike a dagger into my soul; you render life itself a burden. 
The frowns of the world, the finger of scorn, and the hiss of contempt, are 
more than a man can endure. 
“Yet,” says a brilliant writer, “dear as reputation is, and in my 
souks just estimation, prized above all price, it is not too sacred for the 
slanderer to tarnish and destroy. He can take from me the confidence of 
my fellow-citizens, the respect of my friends; can blast my reputation with 
his pestilential breath, and feel not a pang of remorse. 
“He glories in nothing so much as the slaughter of character! He 
would blight the fairest flower in the garden of innocence; demolish the 
loftiest temples of human purity, and place his broad stamp on the holiest 
servant of the living God.” 
The slanderer has not a single pretext or excuse, to palliate his 
offense. A desire to gain may urge some men to the commission of crime; 
the incendiary may be led by hope of theft or escape, to commit arson, and 
the assassin may be excited by the base passion to perpetrate deeds of dark¬ 
ness and of death; but the man who attacks me with slander, has no hope 
of personal good; and if he robs me of character, he 
“Hobs me of that which not enriches him, 
But leaves me poor indeed.” 
Yet, what if certain party tricksters, by basely feeding, ghoul-like, 
upon a political opponent’s good name, do, indeed, climb to place and 
power over his prostrate fame ? Ah, but such are fiends not men ! 
He gratifies the malice of his heart, adds more to the family of 
