THE CRITICAL GIRL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18570, 24 November 1920, Page 3

THE CRITICAL GIRL.

I Tho critical girl may be pretty and I clever, if not actually brilliant, a good I conversationalist, and possessed ot many estimable qualities, but you rarely I find her popular. People rather stand in awe of her and her sharp tongue. | She may be unconscious ot the fact ! that she is inclined to rub people the I wrong way. She is usually more (ban | a trine self-conceited, and has an idea I that alio is capable, of putting others j right on any mid every subject,, and, without knowing it, she has drifted into i.his disagreeable habit ol censoriousness. Instead of bestowing encouragement, sympathy or praise on her friends when they excel in anything, she pounces on their slightest shortcomings, and lays a somewhat rough finger on the weak spots of their armour. She is inclined to misjudge people also, and, nob content with misconstruing their actions, she proceeds to analyse their motives, and • place her own false constructions on these. Ihe members of the household are daily subjected to the lash of her tongue. She attains nagging habits, making dispeace in the home, enrning an unenviable reputation, incurring antagonisms, and ruining her own nature by her fault-finding temperament. Such a girl should take herself in hand. She should make valiant efforts to curb her tongue, _ and for a while try only to give praise instead of to find fault. Thus she will gradually come to be critical in the best way—for true criticism consists in an appreciation of right equally as much as it doe* m the discernment of wrong. Then she will find that there is far more than she thought that is pleasant and liappv in life, and once she ceases to be a wet blanket on the enjoyments of her friends her own enjoyments will increase surprisingly. _ Therefore if any girl finds that she is becoming too critical she will save herself, as well ns her friends, untold trouble if she firmly represses the inclination, and so prevents it from becoming a habit.— H, in “ Tho Daily Alnil.”