For my
own part, I would never trust a man that I thought was capable of
giving these secret wounds; and cannot but think that he would hurt
the person, whose reputation he thus assaults, in his body or in his
fortune, could he do it with the same security. There is indeed
something very barbarous and inhuman in the ordinary scribblers of
lampoons. An innocent young lady shall be exposed for an unhappy
feature; a father of a family turned to ridicule for some domestic
calamity; a wife be made uneasy all her life for a misinterpreted
word or action; nay, a good, a temperate, and a just man shall be
put out of countenance by the representation of those qualities that
should do him honour; so pernicious a thing is wit when it is not
tempered with virtue and humanity.
I have indeed heard of heedless, inconsiderate writers that, without
any malice, have sacrificed the reputation of their friends and
acquaintance to a certain levity of temper, and a silly ambition of
distinguishing themselves by a spirit of raillery and satire; as if
it were not infinitely more honourable to be a good-natured man than
a wit. Where there is this little petulant humour in an author, he
is often very mischievous without designing to be so. For which
reason I always lay it down as a rule that an indiscreet man is more
hurtful than an ill-natured one; for as the one will only attack his
enemies, and those he wishes ill to, the other injures indifferently
both friends and foes.
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