Southern Christian Advocate

YOUTH
From the Youth's Magazine.
CONVERSATION.

Supposing my young friends, to be on their guard against the graver errors of the tongue, such as direct falsehood, misrepresentation, calumny, insinuation, violation of confidence, and the like, I would warn them against a few of the lesser sins of young people, which, from their very commonness, might escape their notice in the earlier stages of self-discipline; such as the love of ridicule, the spirit of exaggeration, &c. which are so apt to pervade the conversation of inexperienced girls, and are often indulged in by them without a suspicion of their real nature and tendency.
The practice of turning into ridicule whatever does not please her, in the appearance or conduct of others, too often gains a young lady the reputation of being a very agreeable companion, and her lively sallies are mistaken for wit; whereas, there is no faculty of the mind that can be cultivated at less expense of wit and wisdom than that of ridicule, and none that finds more ready auditors; for the silliest can join in the laugh which it raises, and the wisest can hardly resist its infection.
A sense of the ridiculous is an original faculty of the human mind; it is much keener in some individuals than in others, and, under proper management, it might possibly find its place in a Christian character; but it is like some plants which, though wholesome in themselves, are never admitted into our gardens, because they spread too rapidly, and root out what is far more valuable. The love of ridicule grows by indulgence, till it destroys the power of discrimination, lessens the sensibility to others' pain, disturbs the balance of justice, blunts all noble and generous feelings, and gives a general taint of coarseness to the whole character. There is nothing too innocent or unobtrusive to be food for this morbid love of sport; nothing too valuable or too beautiful to be viewed in this false light; nothing too high and nothing too low to minister to this diseased appetite; and the pain which it often inflicts on those who are its innocent objects is a small evil compared with the immense injury it does to the mind that entertains it. Besides the evils already enumerated, the love of ridicule indisposes the mind to find pleasure in admiring, which is robbing it of one of its noblest attributes; one stamped with the approbation of God by being made the source of pure and exquisite enjoyment. If you would taste the full happiness of admiring all that is good, and true, and beautiful in the beings who surround you, avoid the practice of ridiculing them, for these cannot exist together.
Equally common with the love of ridicule is the spirit of exaggeration. How many persons, who would be shocked at the idea of telling a deliberate falsehood, yet daily violate truth by exaggerated statements and extravagant expressions. This fault often shows itself in childhood, and has its origin in the activity of the imagination, joined to an imperfect knowledge of language; where it is not early corrected, it grows with the growth and strengthens with the strength and becomes one of the most incurable maladies of the mind. By some it is suddenly assumed as a means of making themselves agreeable to their companions, or by way of equalling them in their style of conversation. Now I would earnestly beg those who are voluntarily adopting this habit of speech, as they would learn an accomplishment, to avoid it while it is yet in their power, and to regard it in its true light, as a sin against God, against their fellow-beings, and against their own nature.
It is a sin against God, inasmuch as it violates his holy laws, which require perfect truth of speech. It is a sin against our fellow-creatures, because it lessens the confidence necessary to social intercourse, and because it leads to misrepresentation and injustice. It is a sin against our own natures, because it deadens the conscience, lessens the reverence for truth, blunts that nice perception by which we are intended to see things as they really are, and accustoms the mind to entertain distorted and inflated visions of its own creating.
Besides all this moral attendant on a habit of exaggeration, it is a great mistake to suppose that it makes a person more agreeable, or that it adds to the importance of her statements.—— The value of a person's words is determined by her habitual use of them. "I like it much," "It is well done," will mean as much in some mouths as "I am infinitely delighted," "Tis the most exquisite thing you ever saw," will in others.—— Such large abatements are necessarily made for the statements of these romancers, that they really gain nothing in the end, but find it difficult sometimes to obtain credence for so much as is really true; whereas a person who is habitually sober and discriminating in her use of language will not only inspire confidence, but be able to produce a great effect by the occasional use of a superlative.
Fidelity and exactness are indispensable in a narrative, and the habit of exaggerating destroys the power of accurate observation and recollection which would render the story truly interesting. If, instead of trying to embellish her account with the fruits of her imagination, a young lady possessed the power of seizing upon the points best worth describing, and could give an exact account of them, she would be far more entertaining than any exaggeration could make her, for there is no romance like that of real life: and no imaginings of an inexperienced girl can equal in piquancy the scenes and characters that are every day presented to our view. Extravagant expressions are sometimes resorted to, in order to atone for deficiencies of memory and observation; but they will never hide such defects, and an habitual use of them lowers the tone of the mind, and leads to other deviations from the simplicity of truth and nature.
Another way of falsifying a narrative is by taking for granted what you do not know, and speaking of it as if you did. This jumping at conclusions is a fruitful source of false reports, and does great mischief in the world. Let no one imagine that she is walking conscientiously, who is not in the habit of discriminating nicely between what she knows to be fact and what she only supposes to be such.-Young Ladies Friend.