Flattery.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 806, 26 May 1876, Page 3

Flattery.

It ia often said that the love of flattery is a mark of what Mr Swinburne has not unhappily termined parvanimity. According to this current view, it is one of the surest signs of a higher moral and intellectual culture to dislike flattery, and to feel contempt for those who offer it. But though this admirable theory is so frequently advocated in words, we much doubt whether many persons, even among the more refined classes of society, consistently hold by it in practice. Although it is doubtless true that certain forms of naked adulation have long since become distasteful in good society, a close observer will still be able to detect traces of refined appreciation of this easy kind of lip.service. Very few, we suspect, even of the polite classes are wholly uususcep tible to the charms of a gracefully executed stroke of flattery, and it seems to be rather au affectation of extraordinary moral severity to denounce the flatterer's art as something radically vicious. Perhaps a common sense investigation of the matter may show that, after all, there is nothing so very terrible iv this fondness for the sweets of artfully-arranged adulation ; that, although it is to be classed among the frailties of human nature, it is not the vulgar and despicable vice which our five maxims appear to represent it as being. Flattery may for our present purposes be roughly denned as a bestowal of praise by complimentary word or action to a deoree not actually supported by the giver's deliberate conviction. There are obviously two things to be distinguished here — the desire to praise and the insincerity of the laudatory action. Now praise itself IS clearly a pleasant thing universally desiied, and it is only a suspicion of its genuineness which makes it of doubtful value. If in any way all grounds for this suspicion can be removed or hidden from sight, it is evident that the flatterer mny carry on his soothing art with perfect success. As a matter of fact, we find many persons of uudoubted character and intellectual ability who are extremely slow to detect the hollowness of any piece of praise accorded to them. More especially, we may observe, among men of certain renown in art or science, and among public officials, there are many who appear to take all kinds of adulation quite as a matter of course, and who, so far from rigidly scrutinising the nature of the sweets thus tendered, seem to count on a certain amount of flattering attention as a perquisite of their elevated position It { is only necessary that a man be deeply impressed with a sense of his own merits in order to derive this amount of gratification from the unsifted praises of others. Biographies of eminent persons abundantly illustrate the. facility with which even penetrating minds allow themselves to be hoodwinked when flatterers present their full-flavored cup. It looks as if such minds were so readily agitated by the pleasant excitement of amour propre as to have no space for the intrusion of critical doubts. They are so accustomed to indulge in a gentle admiration oP their own personal excellence that all external praise, by harmonising so well with their own sentiments, finds easy acceptance. But aeain, even when people are not thus habitually uncritical in receiving I praise, but show a fair amount of skill in discriminating the genuinn pom from its counterfeits, they do not nece*I sarily lose their relish for flattery. All | who look closely into human nature must I wonder ap its capacity for living on halfrecognised illusions. It is quite possible for a person to go on drawing comfort from a pleasing supposition, as, for instance, that he is in possession of a certain moral dignity, and yet to be fully aware that the supposition is extremely doubtful. Those psychologists vyho ]#y street} 014 gpadea of distinct and indistinct consciousness might pr..>bab,ly find an I illustration of their favorite theory in this simultauequs play of a feeling and a suspicion qf it» legitimacy. If only the j psrtipu'ar sentiment pan sepurp a f|rtq footing within the boundaries of clear consciousness, it will not be soon disturbed by any number of unwelcome iietj^ctiquq; 'A'biph, i\it ftrquncj. lb§ b,eil; of qbscure ponsciouaness. Thus it is that we cannot but lik.e the graceful compliment evea when there is a nascent recognition of its partial insincerity and when only a moment's unfettered reflection would assure us of the f^ct. Jp. the rapid How of conversation there is little time for such reflection. The wcllinsortect allusion has just time to awaken a pleasurable glow of satisfaction, and is then expelled by now subjects of thought before it c a 0 have been submitted to a critical analyts. It would be a very lofty style of mind indeed which could espcute thja duty of critical investigation before indulgiug for an instant in the pleasurable sensations which such pretty illusions iiumediaiyly awaken, ~sor is even this all that can be urged in explanation of, if uot in excuse for, the widespread taste for flattery of a certain order. Even after there has been time for reflection, and when the hazy suspicion of the instant ia transformed into a calm and settled acceptance of a probability, the complimer.t which was co delicious at the moment of its utterance does not necessarily lose all its piquant flavor. For it is exceedingly easy to fiud considerations which serve to reduce the probability to a minimum, and so tQ

render it inoperative. For example, the person who is thus reflecting on a recently- bestowed compliment is frequently baffled in bis attempt to estimate its exact value by the vagueness of the language used. The utterances of the flatterer are essentially indefinite. They commonly owe their point to a particular emphasis of voice or manner, or at least to the employment of an exceedingly indefinite superlative term. 'Few, if any, of the customary forms of praise are susceptible of exact measurement. They seek rather to express a feeling in the speaker's mind than to gauge the precise dimensions of the object of the praise, and all affirmations which aim at expressing emotion are iv their nature vagu© propositions. Suppose, for instance, that a lady has just been complimented in emphatic terms on the excellence of a musical performance. On cool reflection she will be apt to doubt, either from previous experience of flattery or from certain circumstances in this particular case, the sincerity of the praise. Still, she will fiud it hard to say whether the language used palpably overstepped the limits of the speaker's feeling at the moment. Strictly speaking, this could only be known with approximate certainty after a very full acquaintance with the particular person's modes of speech. Very warm language, which would be fulsome, if not ridiculous, on the lips of an habitually stolid person, may be quite sincere when employed by a lively and demonstrative man. — ' Saturday Review.'