SNUBBING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4577, 20 November 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

SNUBBING.

(From the Porcupine.)

In the catalogue of the ill-habits of mankind the untoward habit of snubbing stands in a prominent place. It is one of those acta that arouse in the human breast those unholy feelings towards each other which render our social relations dangerous and miserable. It is a habit the possessor of which becomes obnoxious to all around him, for “envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitablenesa " arc contained in the breast that harbors such an unclean spirit; added to which it is vulgar in the extreme. Its real object is to wound ; and a “ sneer" is only the act of a caged wolf or bear, for to sneer and to snarl are synonymous terms. To “snub” says a learned lexicographer, “is to check, stop, or rebuke, with a tart, sarcastic reply or remark. To slight designedly.” “ Oft when blows have made me stay I fled from words,” exclaims Coriolanus ; and we think if the noble Boman were living to-day “ snub ” is one of those words he would flee from, for in it is contained that drachm of baseness which doth the noble substance of mankind often dout to their own scandal. The aspen fang itself is scarce to be more dreaded than are the acrid words of a snubber. Some feeble-minded folks imagine that snubbing is another name for sarcasm, and is ago not an objectionable quality per se, but, like the electricity of the torpedo, may, when occasion requires, be rightly available as a sort of rampart from the attacks of the bold and audacious; but in truth, sarcasm is a far superior quality. One is a talent, the other springs from a bad heart. Sarcasm, when properly used (and it generally Is by those possessing talent), may be a very effective and powerful weapon of defence, and metes out a just punishment to the cantankerous and spiteful creatures who adopt in their speech towards their fellow-creatures nothing but the leaven of malice and wickedness. To such it is only proper that words in reply should be as sharp as any two-edged sword, yet withal taintless of evil therein, and this is invariably the effect of talented sarcasm. Snubbing may perhaps, therefore, be admitted as a low degree of sarcastic speech, but it certainly is a very low one. It is not so much the mere act of snubbing as it is the amount of rancour and ill-will imported into the act that renders it so deplorable, and, at the same time, so offensive and unkind. 1 Taking people “ down a peg,” and giving a “Boland for an Oliver,” is indeed a most critical thing to do, and the performer should be a consummate and experienced actor on the world's stage ere he can hope to win by it. Caution, justness, mildness, candour, good temper, discrimination, and peculiarly the suaviter in modo, fortiter in re, are the reflecting gems of this exquisite art; and it is only in the hands of creatures possessing such a rare combination of good qualities that snubbing becomessuccessful and effective.

To snub, or “ out” anyone, writes the great Lord Chesterfield, is certainly a most difficult thing to do, at all times unpleasant, and positively atrocious when attempted without just and sufficient reason, and he who snubs another should always be prepared to answer for his conduct, since he implies by it that the snubbed has been guilty of some moral crime or unenviable turpitude. And upon this great authority we may safely contend that snubbing is more apposite to the four-legged “curs,” which cannot, like Launce’s dog, keep themselves in all companies, for he is no gentleman who has not a rigid regard for the feelings of others, even in the meanest requests of life ; and those who indulge in the act of snubbing their fellow-creatures may correctly be set down as the dregs and lees of mankind, whatever their status in life. But the sorry fact remains that it is a rooted habit with some unmannerly folks, even in the circles of respectability and position, with whom every other word is a snub. Continued indulgence in the evil practice makes them wholly oblivious to the feelings of then - fellow-creatures, who are made to wince again under the infliction, and thus the presence of a snubber is naturally either dreaded or contemned, just as he happens to be master or equal. If the former, he is dreaded as contagion itself ; and if the latter, contemned with all the scorn that gratuitous insult deserves. If one had but space at our disposal, what innumerable wrongs, could we not catalogue; what stories of truly blighted affections, what agonies endured how many secret wounds inflicted, sympathies made bitter, and all that is loving within us crushed and murdered by the poignant stabs of a snub ! Many a heart has been broken, and especially in domestic circles, by a life of continued snubbearing. Many a wistful hour is daily spent in the "homes ”of England'by the unkindness of these ruthless snubbers.

Speech, we are told, was given to man to conceal his thoughts, but nowadays it means unhappily the converse. The ancient strength and beauty of silence is a faded flower, and the “unruly member” is now a thistle grown up in its stead. It is a broken weapon too fondly cherished by mankind, and, as the fly with the sting in its tail, the snubber blisters where he bites, and a dose of vinegar and nitre, or gall and wormwood, would be equally as edible as his ill-sorted, unmanly, and swinish mouthiness. Verily, he should be banned the pale of social intercourse as a bear robbed of her whelps; or, like a “tainted wether,” driven into the highway, despised of ownership. If it were at all times wise to answer a snubber according to his snub, we should, perhaps, have fewer members of the family in our midst; but, since it is not permitted us to do this, a free license is given for indulgence with impunity in that inhumanity between man and man which renders the human family as wolves unto each other.