No man may disparage the reputation of another. Every one has a right to have his good name maintained, unimpaired. Words which produce any perceptible injury to the reputation of another are called defamatory: and if they are false they are actionable. False and malicious defamatory words, if in printing, writing, pictures or signs, and published, constitute a libel; if spoken, a slander. A caricature may be a libel; so may a chalk-mark on a wall, a statue, hieroglyphics, a rebus, an anagram or an allegory, or even ironical praise. Defamatory matter, whether published in the form of libel or slander, is actionable when it imputes a criminal offence (or a contagious or infectious disorder) or affects the plaintiff injuriously in his lawful profession, trade or business, or in the discharge of a public office, or generally when it is false and malicious, and its publication causes damage to the plaintiff either in law or in fact. Defamatory matter, the publication of which tends to degrade or disparage the plaintiff, or which renders him ridiculous, or charges him with want of honesty, humanity or veracity, or is intended to impair his enjoyment of society, fortune or comfort, is actionable as libel, but not as slander, unless special damage be proved [340]. |130| The person defamed by a libel has not only a civil remedy to recover damages but he may also, in some cases, proceed criminally by way of information or indictment and have the defamer punished as an offender against the state. If he proceeds by information he must in general waive his right to bring a civil action; but he may sue for damages after the offender has been convicted upon an indictment. An action for libel must be brought within six years; and an action for slander within two years, unless the words spoken are actionable only by reason of special damage, in which case the action may be brought at any time within six years.