THE - TRAGEDY - OF RIDICULOUS - GOODNESS: 1V_OWA.DAYS people make a at
effort to see the .1.11- ridiculous side of _things. The power . of 'doing- soi which-we have acquired; is mixed up with all our virtues, with . our tolerance, our courage, and our innate love of individual liberty. We are bidding fair to become a nation of satirists, though as yet no great spokesman has arisen to give voice to our mood. We are still in the midst of what has been wittily called "the ironical silence which follows upon a- great controversy." The educated mean much that they never say for fear of seeming prigs, and the uneducated say all day long what they do not mean, .a.pparently for purposes of self-control and in, order to keep up their spirits. Street controversies—small quarrels, we mean, between omnibus-drivers or van-drivers or lift- men and, their passengers, or any of the hundred and one differences of opinion -which go on in the hearing.of the public—are still conventionally described as matches of bad language.- As! a matter. of fact, it is not the bad language- but the satire which. strikes the passer-by. Almost all small misfortunes are ridiculed by their victims, if those victims have an audience. The same is true of small hardships. A bad London . fog may be said to sparkle with the jokes of the working coekneys whom it smothers. To have no sense of .humour is a reproach we dare not make to a friend—as welt tell him he has no sense of honour.- We are training, ourselves to see the absurd side of everything—and to seek in absurdity both con- solation and variety. All this has, as we have said, its. very fine side. It is productive of heroism this humorous discounting of hardship—it - has killed- hypocrisy and scotched boasting, but it is productive also of tragedy.
Looking as we do for the ridiculous, we very often find it in real worth. The modern-use of the-word " worthy " is just now a case in point. If we say that a man is "very worthy," we mean that we set- a very small 'value upon him and his goodness.. We do not mean that his goodness is a -pretence. All the same there-is a tacit irony about our words, and we are poking a moment's solemn fun at him. If a man's general acquaintance..set him down as worthy; there probably is something ridiculous about -him, but it is something which in the past - would have been far less generally- perceived and- scornfully elided to than it is now Even' now it 'is almost impossible to say what it is • that -he leeks cr. has -too much of, and 'quite, impossible for the man himself to recognize, correct 'or even hide his latent absurdity. There is a touch of tragedy • abeut his position.. We see -him, probably he- sees -himself,' plodding patiently along very, much weighted by his - principles, and never getting- any of the-applause and, encouragement that fallS to the lot of those-who-travel a great deal. lighter and ire not-half so- trustworthy. He knows be is -good— all good people do know -.it except the very best—and he cannot for the- life-of him see why the fact impresses -no. one and frankly • amuses -so -many. It most often -seem- hardly, worth' while -to go on with the- effOrt.- People say he is rather.'" inheman," but whatever-does that mean.? He is not tit all devilish; not at all animal,-nor at all unkind: He is simply without the grace and sympathy, which is what we really like in each other; whether it goes -with "worth " or-not; The flavour_ of ridicule, which- clung -so long to the-word. " amiable " is, we think, beginning- to -fade away. For - a long time it seemed to contradict itself • and meant unlov,. able. It was used - to describe a nomcontentious person' without attraction- and did not suggest any other "good' quality, than readiness -to-' agree or perhaps absence- of spitefulness . attributable to stupidity. Lately we have- heard lie applied 'in a less derogatory sense.. People are called amiable in much' the same sense as they are called harmless, it is not so warm a. commendation-as blameless, , and' far less commendatory than-- "nice." There is -- something rather sad,' if - one thinks' of it, about the way in , which' these-' somewhat -insipid 'people are swept- aside with a derisive - smile; They; too, must- wonder Why their savourlessness is-regarded as -ridiculous, while so many people. capable of 'being so " nasty " andto spare. They never -say an-ill-natured -word or pick- a' quarrel 'or take oinnee. It comes natural to them 'to- be good.natured and, of:course, they are rather proud- of their dispositions, but- perhaps they' wish' they' were- worse, when they realize how little they are appreciated and, how often they are likened to "old sheep" and otherwise scoffingly alluded -to: Perhaps no goodness. is so often ridiculous aathegoodnesa of the philanthropist. It is ,almost a pity that Mrs. Jellaby was ever created I She has caused .so many- good. people to be undervalued. Pity is often absurd to those who cannot see its object. When a short-sighted and un. imaginative person, specially a woman, sees another, woman expending her own emotion, and perhaps other. people's money, about a cause outside. a limited range of • vision she laughs. Laughter is catching and unthinking people, who could, very well see what is going on if they would look, join in the senseless derision, The result is that many a sensitive person gives her whole mind and strength to work about which she dare not talk, becoming self-centred and embittered because she. gets no sym- pathy. It is always respectable to work for yourself or for anyone else who can be seen or for any-cause close by, but ' causes which appeal only to the imaginative often cover their adherents with ridicule, especially if they are taken up by old maids. Not that we think- the par- ticular forms of goodness ascribed to old maids are . always ridiculed. They are not, but them is no doubt such a thing as ridiculous innocence, that is, a want of knowledge of the world inexcusable in a sympathetic person who has long watched- it. It may be, hard that for such ignorance anyone should be ridiculed, but it is inevitable. Whatever is out of proportion is grotesque ; and the qualities of a child destroy the symmetry of a grown up character.. Gullibility' is often- a(form of goodness, but it is very. difficult not-to be amused at it.. The gullible . person is very unfortunate, unless he isreally great. Then i he may stand where the sublime touches the ridiculous. There am people who imagine that everyone is good, and i there are others ,who see the good in . everyone. A vast number of silly people 'belong to the' type of St. Francis, but it is -type that -produces the nearest approach to perfection which human nature is.-capable. of. Saints do not know the world,, but to do, the world justice- it always knows &saint and always respects him.. Something of .tragedy hangs -about official goodness. It is always a target for ridicule. Yet t it is the duty of ; many a man to be, as it were, officially good.: A school-, master in- the perfonnanee of-This-duty almost must appear - better than he is:- That is, he 'must he an examplto amino 1 one is. a conscious example, quite. spontaneously. A parson again- simply cannot -always say-. what he thinks. He must, to a. certain extent, say what as expected. of him. Yet for doing so he is often ridlcule4 though if ,he ,did not- do so he would be condemned. Something,,-of the sort is true.of almost every public man The position must often be a.'horribly painful one. Extreme scrupulosity is another form of --goodness which is very often ridiculed; and _that. is very hirdofor Ake good people who. suffer from it: It -is in .truth:r.nothing but a . form of mental asceticism, and physical ,asceticism always exacts from the world its toll of admiration. It is no longer the fashion—but only in one 'form is- it even now, con- sidered ludicrous. In the middle ages even dirt. was admired. Now it has been sneered but of the list of works of -supererogation, and .never excused but on, the score of' dire poverty. Scrupulosity is the hair -shirt-of -the mind.' pveryone . laughs. at the discomfort. of the wearer, and' perhaps nowhere else is the -tragedy of ridiculous goodness- eo patent—or so hopeless..
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