That a person is always
ready to extol others, and was never heard to speak ill of anybody under
the sun, appears to some the very crown of excellence. But what is the
panegyric worth that has no discrimination, that finds any mortal
faultless, or bestows on the varying and contradictory behaviors of men
an equal meed? To what does universal commendation amount more than
universal indifference? What value do we put on the lavish regard which
is not _individual_, or founded on any intelligent appreciation of its
object, but scattered blindly abroad on all flesh, as once thousands
were vaguely baptized in the open air by a general sprinkling, and which
any one can appropriate only as he may own a certain indeterminate
section of an undivided township or unfenced common? To have a good
word for everybody, and take exception to nothing, is to incapacitate
one's self for the exquisite delight of real fellowship. We all know
persons who seem a sort of social favorites on account of this gracious
manner which they afford with such mechanical plenty. But what a
dilution and deterioration their external quality of half-artificial
courtesy becomes! It is handing round sweetened water, instead of
tasting the juice of the grape.
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