COLORED GLASSES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 240, 9 October 1880, Page 4

COLORED GLASSES.

One of those things which no civilised person should be without is an assortinenrof mental glasses, of different colors, through which to view men and things, according to the varying exigencies of the lioun Persons who lack the qualities of fine feeling can afford to dispense with such machinery. If they have any reason for making much of A, they proceed without more ado, to make much of him. Yesterday he may have been treated with common politeness ; it was unnecessary. To-day he is put in the place of honor, and yesterd | ay l is entirely ignored ; it is advantageous so to do, and that is sufficient. And so far as the outside world goes, such a change of front is a safe manoeuvre enough ; for if a man does not take the trouble to invent a reason for himself, he is certain not to be troubled to give an explanation to any body else* There is a blunt honesty about many whom he meets, which prompts them to hit a 1 man when he is down, for no more recondite reason than that he is down, and to see no necessity for volunteering an■explanauation of* the exercise of power, where opportunity is ample justification. But tliero are those who are cast in a more refined raould than this, who shrink from the bluntness which calls a spade a spade, and. then applies it to a, helpless neighbour's head ; who, if obliged to abandon a friend in distress, would fain see a paramount duty which calls them away from the wreck ; and, when constrained, by sycophancy to worship at the mahogany aitar of Money-bags, must discover some essential attraction of morality or mind, which leads them to the accidental enjoyment of the fleeting pleasures of that rich man's table. Where a social catastrophe has occurred, where B.s wife has run away with C, or D. has appropriated the funds of E , F., and G-., the least intimate associate of the glass-wearing stamp will utterly refuse to be taken unawares. Though the disclosure may have fallen like a thunder-bolt, the appropriate glass has fallen with it, like the " spectacles" over a railway signal lamp, and no power on earth can ever convinco the wearerthat he did not l'eally view things in that particulai* light, before the occurrence which made that light appropriate. It is not only other people's actions and motives which are subjected to a changefully appropriate coloring. The misrepresentation of their own thoughts and proceedings is elevated by some people into a perfect science. The taste grows like other tastes, by indulgence, and misrepresentation of some foolish, or nnworthy course of conduct leads, very often, to misrepresentations of. motives, where no sort of necessity exists for disguising their real nature. The talent for diplomacy, when it finds no due outlet, seeks relief, very often, in duplicity ; its victim, in most instances, shrinks from the dishonour of deceiving another, and so exercises all its force upon himself. The worst effect this produces in honorable persons, is, as- far as their friends are concerned, an intolerable perverseness ; for the ingenuity- which is practised in coloring all internal motives, according to the will of the subject, will, almost insensibly, be used to color facts and arguments to suit his contentions iv external affairs. . This state of mind is, after all, generally found to be a very charitable one. The man who is thus able always to think well of himself, usually bestows. ;a fairshare of. the couleur de rose upon his friends, and has been known to supply unasked, a sound, coherent, and creditable reason for a friend's conduct, !at which conduct the friend himself was in truth,' inclined to be not a little puzzled and ashamed. — Life.