This," said Byron, "was an ingenious, as well as charitable supposition;
and we must all allow that it is infinitely more easy to decry and expose
the sins of others, than to correct our own; and many find the first so
agreeable an occupation, that it precludes the second--this, at least, is
my case."
"The Italians do not understand the English," said Byron; "indeed, how can
they? for they (the Italians) are frank, simple, and open in their natures,
following the bent of their inclinations, which they do not believe to be
wicked; while the English, to conceal the indulgence of theirs, daily
practise hypocrisy, falsehood, and uncharitableness; so that to _one_
error is added many crimes." Byron had now got on a favourite subject, and
went on decrying hypocrisy and cant, mingling sarcasms and bitter
observations on the false delicacy of the English. It is strange, but true
as strange, that he could not, or at least did not, distinguish the
distinction between cause and effect, in this case. The respect for virtue
will always cause spurious imitations of it to be given; and what he calls
hypocrisy, is but the respect to public opinion that induces people, who
have not courage to correct their errors, at least to endeavour to conceal
them; and Cant is the homage that Vice pays to Virtue.[1] We do not value
the diamond less, because there are so many worthless imitations of it,
and Goodness loses nothing of her intrinsic value because so many wish to
be thought to possess it.
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