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Show The Vice of Exaggeration. We have all laughed over the story of the good deacon who was visited by a committee of his brethren, to reprove him for his fault of habitual exaggeration. When told that he was doing grievous wrong and bringing scandal upon the church by his conduct, he responded between his sobs: "I know it, brethren, I know it; it's a dreadful fault, and I've shed barrels of tears over it." But how many of us who enjoy the laugh take to heart the moral of the story? Most of us could name at least one person who is habitually guilty of exaggeration - a man or woman statements regarding matters of fact everybody discounts from ten to fifty percent before believing them. They are not liars, in the strict sense of that term; that is, they are free from all intention to deceive. And yet a large part of what they say is false, and they would deceive if people who know had not learned how to guess at about the proportion of truth, which their remarks contain. And the fault is not altogether one to be laughed at and ridiculed merely. Half the quarrels and scandals that arise are caused by the repetition, with unconscious exaggeration, by C to A of B has said about him. It is so easy to add or emphasize a word, to change an inflection or a gesture, so that a harmless remark becomes discourteous and irritating. The same tendency to exaggeration is at the bottom of half the decisions the ordinary newspaper style, of which critics say so much. The writer who has a small idea to express is not content to express it in a small way, but seeks after big, mouth filling words, and piles up adjectives around his nouns, until the idea is lost in a cloud of verbiage. Exaggeration is not only a vicious but a silly habit. The end aimed at is to deepen the impression the speaker or writer wishes to produce, but instead of that, it weakens the impression. A simple sentence goes to the mark like a bullet; and if there is an idea in it, it tells for all it is worth. The simplest statement of matter of fact, as brief and crisp as it can be made, is the most impressive. Nothing is better than the simple truth about a thing. The man who overstates may gain a temporary advantage, but the cool second thought will produce a revulsion of feeling which will injure his cause and himself. In the long run, not only will nothing be gained, but much will be lost. The plain truth, on the other hand, makes a forcible impression at the first, and the impression deepens afterwards. Hence it is that plain, strong style leaves its marks on one who reads it, while a horrid and exaggerated style may amuse and charm for the time, but soon palls on the taste and is rejected by the judgment. Hence it is that an orator who, like Lord Beaconsfield, is always ready to sacrifice everything for the mere impression of the moment, is never able to gain any hold on the moral sense of a nation, and remains to the last only a clever party leader. Hence it is that a man whose imagination always gets so far the better of his judgment, that he cannot tell a plain fact precisely as it happened or repeat a conversation just as it occurred, so that he can never be fully believed or those who know him until they have some corroborative evidence of the truth of his statements can never [unreadable] the mark on the world that his abilities could lead one to expect. Of all the faults usually classed among "the small vices" there are few, if any, that are more reprehensible than [unreadable] exaggeration. "It is as easy as lying," said Hamlet to the courtiers who protested that they could not play on the recorders. How hard it is to tell the exact truth we all know, but it is a virtue worth striving for with [unreadable] perseverance. - New York Examiner. |