Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1880 — Custodianship of Others' Character. [ARTICLE]

Custodianship of Others' Character.

In addition to that true responsibility for others—responsibility on the part of -parent, teacher, brother, friend, employer, fellow-worker —whioh at times must rest upon every member of human society, there is also laid upon every man a duty not so much for others as to others. We must stand in a representative and responsible position, not only as substitutes for, or leaders of, those with whom we have to but also as the medium by whioh their characters are presented to those who know them only through us. Great and responsible as is our duty to our fellows in the matter of our influence upon them and bur necessary assumption of responsibility for their acts, our duty does not end here. It also includes the constant obligation to make a right presentation of their character and their work, and to extend their good influences by our own offices of judicious friendship, instead of harming their reputation and limiting or destroying their labors by our own folly or wicke an ess. An English essayist says, in writing of the world's greatest composer: *' It is, perhaps, one noteworthy evidence of the inherent greatness ana stability of Beethoven's genius, that even his admirers have not been able to write him down.” How great is the injury done to eminent men, in every department of labor, by ill-advised and extravagant eulogy, every student of history and biography well knows. Worthless characters, to be sure, have for a time been “ written np,”. but such artidcial fame is less lasting than the real mischief brought upon the reputation of true heroes, and artists, and authors, by those who have overburdened them with indiscreet praise. The general rectitude of the motives of extravagant adulators does not save their work from the mischievous results which surely follow it iu the minds of a disgusted public of readers. In effect, though possibly not always in morals, the ultimate results of the most sincere praise, if it lacks the needed elements of discretion, and right thinking, and sound mental regimen, may hot be different from those of malicious detraction. It deed, they are sometimes worse, for a good character can rally from mean hostility more readily than from sickening praise. But our duty, as custodians of the character of others, in our presentation of their dispositions and doings, .is by no means chiefly con lined to our treatment of the great men of the world; To present a lalse or unwise picture of a man of established reputation is a slow and difficult process; to present such a picture of one of our equals, or of an ordinary social acquaintance, is a speedy and - easily-accomplished act. Daily and hourly, by our Words and manner, we are called on to bear testimony to others of those known to us, and unknown, or partially known, to them. If that testimony is In the line of silly and unmerited praise, or hasty and unjust criticism, or one-sided and ignorant information, we may by it greatlv, and perhaps permanently, injure the reputation aha the moral usefulness of those of whom we speak amiss. The harm that we can do in the one direction of laying false emphasis—perhaps unwittingly—upon some particular deed, or word, or phase of character, may be as hurtful as though we bad lied outright and set about to wreak malicious veugesnee upon those whom we profess to nonor. Could we always remember that when we apeak of one person to another, we are, to the extent of our words, the custodian of his character, and that we have no right to speak save in obedience to large laws of truth and justice and charity, the number of wounds—nay, of positive murders—of character would be far smaller than it is now.— B. 3. Times.