belabour them, and
leave them without a rag of virtue or honour?" My companion frowned,
and said: "Yes; that is more or less what I mean, though I think your
illustration is needlessly profane. My idea is that we ought to make
the best of people, and try as far as possible to be blind to their
faults." "Unless their fault happens to be criticism?" I said. My
companion turned to me very solemnly, and said: "I think we ought not
to be afraid, if necessary, of telling our friends about their faults;
but that is quite a different thing from amusing oneself by discussing
their faults with others." "Well" I said, "I believe that one is in a
much better position to speak to people about their faults, if one
knows them; and personally I think I arrive at a juster view both of my
friends' faults and virtues by discussing them with others. I think one
takes a much fairer view, by seeing the impression that one's friends
make on other people; and I think that I generally arrive at admiring
my friends more by seeing them reflected in the mind of another, than I
do when they are merely reflected in my own mind. Besides, if one is
possessed of critical faculties, it seems to me absurd to rule out one
part of life, and that, perhaps, the most important--one's
fellow-beings, I mean--and to say that one is not to exercise the
faculty of criticism there. You would not think it wrong, for instance,
to criticise books?" "No," said my companion, "certainly not. I think
that it is not only legitimate, but a duty, to bring one's critical
faculties to bear on books; it is one of the most valuable methods of
self-education." "And yet books are nothing but an expression of an
author's personality," I said. "Would you go so far as to say that one
has no business to criticise one's friends' books?" "You are only
arguing for the sake of arguing," said my companion. "With books it is
quite different; they are a public expression of a man's opinions, and
consequently they are submitted to the world for criticism." "I
confess," I said, "that I do not think the distinction is a real one. I
feel sure one has a right to criticise a man's opinions, delivered in
conversation; and I think that much of our lives is nothing but a more
or less public expression of ourselves. Your position seems to me no
more reasonable than if a man was to say: 'I look upon the whole world,
and all that is in it, as the work of God; and I am not in a position
to criticise any