The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays: 1909Bierce, Ambrose
Philosophy
The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays: 1909
Bierce, Ambrose
Essays
One may smile upon a rascal (most of us do so many times a day) if one
does not know him to be a rascal, and has not said he is; but
knowing him to be, or having said he is, to smile upon him is to be a
hypocrite--just a plain hypocrite or a sycophantic hypocrite, according
to the station in life of the rascal smiled upon. There are more plain
hypocrites than sycophantic ones, for there are more rascals of no
consequence than rich and distinguished ones, though they get fewer
smiles each. The American people will be plundered as long as the
American character is what it is; as long as it is tolerant of
successful knavery; as long as American ingenuity draws an imaginary
distinction between a man's public character and his private--his
commercial and his personal In brief, the American people will be
plundered as long as they deserve to be plundered. No human law can stop
it, none ought to stop it, for that would abrogate a higher and more
salutary law: "As ye sow ye shall reap."
In a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Parkhurst is the following: "The story of
all our Lord's dealings with sinners leaves upon the mind the invariable
impression, if only the story be read sympathetically and earnestly,
that He always felt kindly towards the transgressor, but could have
no tenderness of regard toward the transgression. There is no safe and
successful dealing with sin of any kind save as that distinction is
appreciated and made a continual factor in our feelings and efforts."
With all due respect for Dr. Parkhurst, that is nonsense. If he will
read his New Testament more understandingly he will observe that
Christ's kindly feeling to transgressors was not to be counted on by
sinners of every kind, and it was not always in evidence; for example,
when he flogged the money-changers out of the temple. Nor is Dr.
Parkhurst himself any too amiably disposed toward the children of
darkness. It is not by mild words and gentle means that he has hurled
the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. Such
revolutions as he set afoot are not made with spiritual rose-water;
there must be the contagion of a noble indignation fueled with harder
wood than abstractions. The people can not be collected and incited to
take sides by the spectacle of a man fighting something that does
not fight back. It is men that Dr. Parkhurst is trouncing--not their
crimes--not Crime. He may fancy himself "dowered with the hate of hate,
the scorn of scorn," but in reality he does not hate hate but hates the
hateful, and scorns, not scorn, but the scornworthy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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