As to slander, it is not necessary to say much on the subject to show to what degree it is cowardly and criminal. What makes it, above all, cowardly is that it is always very difficult to combat and refute slander. Often, and for a long time, it is not known: at the moment when one hears of it, it has taken roots which nothing can destroy. One does not know who spread it, nor whom to answer. It is, besides, often impossible to prove a negative thing: namely, that one has done no harm, that one has not committed such and such an action, and said such or such a word. One always confronts the well-accredited saying: "There is no smoke without fire." The wrong done by slander will be better understood by the description Beaumarchais has given of it: "Slander, sir--you hardly know how great a thing you hold in contempt: I have seen the best of people crushed by it. Believe me, there is no flat malice, no hateful story, no absurd tale which a skillful mischief-maker cannot make the idlers of a large town believe.... At first, a slight report, just grazing the ground as a swallow does before the storm: murmuring _pianissimo_, and spinning away, it launches in its course the poisoned arrow. A certain ear is open to take it in, and it is deftly whispered _piano_, _piano_, to the next. The harm is done; it sprouts, crawls, makes its way; and _rinforzando_ from mouth to mouth, goes like wildfire; then all at once, you scarcely know how, you see the slander rise before you, whistling, blowing, growing while you look at it. It starts, takes its flight, whirls about, envelops, pulls, carries everything along with it, bursts and thunders, and becomes a general cry, a public _crescendo_, a universal chorus of hatred and proscription.[40] =57. Rash judgments.=--We call rash judgments ill-natured remarks made about others without sufficient knowledge of facts. It is through rash judgments one becomes often the accomplice of slander, without knowing it and without wishing it. Nicole, in his _Essais de Morale_, has thoroughly treated the question of rash judgments. We have but to give here a short _résumé_ of his Treatise on this subject. 1. Rash judgments are a usurpation of God's judgment. Rash judgments being always accompanied by ignorance and want of knowledge, are a manifest injustice and a presumptuous usurpation of God's authority. 2. This sin has degrees according to the _quality_ of its object, the _causes_ from which it springs, and the _effects_ it produces. The _quality_ of the object increases it or diminishes it, because the more things are important the more is one obliged to be circumspect and reserved in the judgments one pronounces.[41] The _causes_ may be very different: