' COURTESY versus SINCERITY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1
have read with much interest your article on "Courtesy versus Sincerity." It seems to me that Bishop Huntington has fallen into the mistake of most Puritans of attacking- innocent acts in his desire to remove evil ; and your article proves that he has at once produced the fatal result of that policy, driving the defenders of innocent acts to make common cause with the guilty.
I cannot see how pleading ill-health for a person who is well can be anything but a falsehood ; and I cannot think that the ingenious defenders of "Not at home" can even prove that the phrase is not equivocal ; since the caller cannot tell if his friend is out, or engaged, or ill. Nor have I ever been able to see the discourtesy involved in the explanation of the real cause of the refusal. Nor can I think you justified in sneering at the argument about consideration for servants' consciences:. There is no double meaning in the instances which you- quote as parallel. The phrase, "The sun rises," is not intended-to confuse the mind of the person to whom it is addressed ; it is merely an inaccuracy which the person using it would be perfectly willing to explain. (Does the servant explain to the visitor in what sense the phrase "Not at home" is used?) But the real evil of Bishop Huntington's line of attack, is that people so often mistake their own motives. A really religious effort to arrive at truth-speaking by discarding formulas rarely leads to real discourtesy. (I never knew a. rude Quaker in my life.) But, on the other hand, the mere desire to be quit of restraint on one's tongue and temper rarely leads to sincerity. I hardly ever knew a habitually discourteous person who. was not also rather reckless of statement.
If people would only study Shakespeare, they would find that his consummate hypocrite is not a smooth-tongued passer of compliments, but a rollicking, coarse soldier, who glories in never seeming to be a man of high type, and who scarcely cares to restrain his tongue even in the presence of Desdemona.
The mistake doubtless in part arises from .the theory that truth-speaking comes naturally to us, and that, if we only speak without restraint, we shall speak truly. If those who think thus would examine themselves at the close of the day,. and see how often their words had accurately corresponded. to their feelings, they would say, with poor Mr. Lofty, that "the man who invented the art of speaking the truth was a cunninger fellow than they took him for."—I am, Sir, &c:, [We are willing to give up the excuse of ill-health, but "Not at home" has a definite conventional meaning. If a servant wishes to say distinctly that his master is away, he says so in other words.—En. Spectator.]
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