Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' 'Magazine: Or, General And Complete Library.
and the discovery , or even imputation of any defect , is not borne by them without uneasiness . R AILLERY must be confessed to be the most refined way of exposing the faults of others ; and because ' tis commonly done with some wit , in good language , and entertains the company , people apt to be led into a mistakethat where it keeps within fair
are , bounds , there is no incivility in it . The pleasantry of this sort of conversation introduces it often therefore among people of the better sort ; and such talkers , it must be . owned , are well heard , and generally applauded by the laughter of the standers-by : but it oug ht at the same time to be considered , that the entertainment of the company is at the cost of the person who is painted in burcannot be without uneasiness
lesque characters , who therefore some on the occasion , unless the subject , on which he is rallied , be matter of commendation ; in which case the pleasant images which make the raillery , carrying with them praise as well as sport , the rallied person , finding his account in it , may also take a part in the diversion
. But in regard the rig ht management of so nice a point , wherein the least slip may spoil all , is not every body ' s talent , it is better , that such as would be secure of not provoking others , should wholly abstain from raillery , which by a small mistake , or wrong turn , may leave upon the minds of those who are stung by it , the
lasting memory of having been snarply , though wittily , taunted , for something censurable in them . CONTRADICTION is also a sort of Censoriousness , wherein illbreeding much too often shews itself . Complaisance does ' not require , that we should admit of all the reasonings , or silently approve of all the accounts of things , that may be vented in our hearingThe opposing the ill-grounded opinionsand the rectifying
. , the mistakes of others , is what truth and chanty sometimes require of us ; nor does civility forbid , so it be done with proper caution and due care of circumstance . But there are some men , who seem so perfectly possessed , as it were , with the spirit of contradiction and perverseness , that they steadily , and without regard either to right or some oneand perhaps every one-of the company
wrong , oppose , in whatsoever is advanced . This is so evident and outrageous a degree of censuring , that none can avoid thinking himself injured by it . All sort of opposition to what another man says , is so apt to be suspected of Censoriousness , and is so seldom received without some sort of humiliation , that it ought to be made in the gentlest manner ,
and couched in the softest expressions thatcan be found , and such as , with the whole deportment , may express no forwardness to contradict . All possible marks of respect and'good-will ought to accompany it , that whilst we gain the argument , we may not lose the good inclinations of any that hear , and especially of those who happen to diifer from lis .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' 'Magazine: Or, General And Complete Library.
and the discovery , or even imputation of any defect , is not borne by them without uneasiness . R AILLERY must be confessed to be the most refined way of exposing the faults of others ; and because ' tis commonly done with some wit , in good language , and entertains the company , people apt to be led into a mistakethat where it keeps within fair
are , bounds , there is no incivility in it . The pleasantry of this sort of conversation introduces it often therefore among people of the better sort ; and such talkers , it must be . owned , are well heard , and generally applauded by the laughter of the standers-by : but it oug ht at the same time to be considered , that the entertainment of the company is at the cost of the person who is painted in burcannot be without uneasiness
lesque characters , who therefore some on the occasion , unless the subject , on which he is rallied , be matter of commendation ; in which case the pleasant images which make the raillery , carrying with them praise as well as sport , the rallied person , finding his account in it , may also take a part in the diversion
. But in regard the rig ht management of so nice a point , wherein the least slip may spoil all , is not every body ' s talent , it is better , that such as would be secure of not provoking others , should wholly abstain from raillery , which by a small mistake , or wrong turn , may leave upon the minds of those who are stung by it , the
lasting memory of having been snarply , though wittily , taunted , for something censurable in them . CONTRADICTION is also a sort of Censoriousness , wherein illbreeding much too often shews itself . Complaisance does ' not require , that we should admit of all the reasonings , or silently approve of all the accounts of things , that may be vented in our hearingThe opposing the ill-grounded opinionsand the rectifying
. , the mistakes of others , is what truth and chanty sometimes require of us ; nor does civility forbid , so it be done with proper caution and due care of circumstance . But there are some men , who seem so perfectly possessed , as it were , with the spirit of contradiction and perverseness , that they steadily , and without regard either to right or some oneand perhaps every one-of the company
wrong , oppose , in whatsoever is advanced . This is so evident and outrageous a degree of censuring , that none can avoid thinking himself injured by it . All sort of opposition to what another man says , is so apt to be suspected of Censoriousness , and is so seldom received without some sort of humiliation , that it ought to be made in the gentlest manner ,
and couched in the softest expressions thatcan be found , and such as , with the whole deportment , may express no forwardness to contradict . All possible marks of respect and'good-will ought to accompany it , that whilst we gain the argument , we may not lose the good inclinations of any that hear , and especially of those who happen to diifer from lis .