Common Sense, How to Exercise It Part 9

"Sentimentality is multiform.

"It presents itself, at times, under the aspect of an obscure appeal to sensuality and brings with it a pa.s.sing desire of the heart and of the senses, which produces an artificial appreciation of the emotion felt.

"In this first case sentimentality is an unconscious manifestation of egotism, because, outside of that which provokes this outward manifestation, everything is alienated and becomes indistinct.

"The incidents of existence lose their true proportion, since everything becomes relative to the object because of our preoccupation.

"The impulse reigns supreme there when sentimentality establishes itself, and the desire of judgment, if it makes itself apparent, is quickly shunned, to the profit of illusory reasons, in which pure reason does not intervene.

"This sentimentality amalgamating the springs of egotism bereaves the soul's longing of all its greatness.

"The anxiety to attribute all our impressions to emotion is only a way of intensifying it for our personal satisfaction, at the expense of a sentiment far deeper and more serious, which never blossoms under the shadow of egotism and of frivolous sentimentality.

"Never will common sense have the chance to manifest itself in those who permit such ephemeral and enfeebling impressions to implant themselves in their souls.

"However they must be pitied because their artificial emotion often results in a sorrow which is not lessened by repet.i.tion, but whose manifestation is none the less prejudicial to the peace of their being.

"All those who do not harmonize common sense and the emotions of the heart become pa.s.sive to the invest.i.ture of a sentimentality which does not wait to know if the object be worthy of them before it exists in consciousness.

"From this state of mind arise disillusions and their recurrence entails a defect in the conception.

"Men who are often deceived in allowing themselves to feel a sorrow which is only based on the longings of sentimentality become pessimists quickly and deny the existence of deep and enduring affection judged from its superior expression.

"This superior expression of sentiment is freed from all personality and such judgment which differentiates it from other sentiments.

"If we wished to appeal to common sense we should acknowledge, too often, that in the search for expansion we have only recognized the opportunity to satisfy the inclination which urges us to seek for pleasure.

"Sentiment reasons, and is capable of devotion. Sentimentality excludes reflective thought and ignores generosity.

"We are capable of sacrificing ourselves for sentiment.

"Sentimentality exacts the sacrifice of others.

"Therefore, profiting by the principles already developed, he who cultivates common sense will never fail to reason in the following manner:

"Opening the symbolic fan, he will encounter, after perfection, the memory which will suggest to him the recollections of personal and strange experiences and he will record this fact: abegation is rarely encountered.

"The inclination of our thoughts will suggest to us the difficulties there are in searching for it.

"Deduction will acquaint us with the temerity of this exaction, and precaution will attract our thoughts to the possibility of suffering which could proceed from disillusion.

"Following this, reasoning and judgment will intervene in order to hasten the conclusion formulated by common sense.

"It follows then that, abnegation being so rare, common sense indicates to me that it would be imprudent for me to allow my happiness to rest upon the existence of a thing so exceptional.

"For this reason this sentimental defect will find common sense armed against this eventuality.

"There is another form or sentimentality not less common.

"It is that which extends itself to all the circ.u.mstances of life and transforms true pity into a false sensibility, the exaggeration of which deteriorates the true value of things.

"Those who give publicity to this form of sentiment are agitated (or imagine themselves to be agitated) as profoundly on the most futile of pretexts as for the most important cause.

"They do not think to ask themselves if their ardor is merited; also every such experience, taking out of them something of their inner selves, leaves them enfeebled and stranded.

"Every excursion into the domain of sentimentality is particularly dangerous, for tourists always fail to carry with them the necessary coinage which one calls common sense."

After having put ourselves on guard against the surprizes of mental exaggeration, Yoritomo warns us of a kind of high respectable sentimentality which we possess, that is none the less censurable because under an exterior of the purest tenderness it conceals a profound egotism.

It concerns paternal love from which reasoning and common sense are excluded.

"Nothing" said he, "seems more n.o.ble than the love of parents for their children, and no sentiment is more august when it is comprehended in all its grandeur.

"But how many people are apt to distinguish it from an egotistical sentimentality.

"I have seen some mothers oppose the departure of their sons, preferring to oblige them to lead an obscure existence near to them, rather than impose upon themselves the sorrow of a separation.

"These women do not fail to condemn the action of others, who, filled with a sublime abnegation, allow their children to depart, hiding from them the tears which they shed, because they have the conviction of seeing them depart for the fortune and the happiness which they feel themselves unable to offer them.

"Which of these are worthy of admiration? Those who condemn their children to a life of mediocrity in order to obey an egotistical sentimentality, or those who, with despair in their hearts, renounce the joy of their presence, and think only of their own grief in order to build upon it the happiness of their dear ones.

"The common sense of this latter cla.s.s inspiring in them this magnificent sentiment, and forcing them to set aside a sentimentality which is, in reality, only the caricature of sentiment, has permitted them to escape that special kind of egotism, which could be defined thus: The translation of a desire for personal contentment.

"Ought we then to blame others so strongly?

"It is necessary, above all, to teach them to reason about the ardor of their emotions, and only to follow them when they find that they are cleansed from all aspiration which is not a pledge of devotion."

Now the Shogun speaks to us with that subtlety of a.n.a.lysis which is characteristic and refers to a kind of sentimentality the most frequent and the least excusable.

"There are," he tells us, "a number of people who, without knowing that they offend common sense in a most indefensible manner, invoke sentimentality in order to dispense with exercising the most vulgar pity, to the profit of their neighbor.

"A prince," he continues, "possest a large? tract of land which he had put under grain.

"For the harvest, a large number of peasants and laborers were employed and each one lived on the products of his labor.

"But a prolonged drought threatened the crop; so the prince's overseer dismissed most of the laborers, who failed to find employment in the parched country.

"Soon hunger threatened the inmates of the miserable dwellings, and sickness, its inseparable companion, did not fail to follow.

"Facing the conditions the prince left, and had it not been for two or three wealthy and charitable people the laborers would have starved to death.

"This pitiful condition was soon changed, abundance replaced famine, and the master returned to live in his domain.

"But amazement followed when he addrest his people as follows: Here I am, back among you, and I hope to remain here a long time; if I left you, it was because I have so great an affection for all my servants and because even the bare thought of seeing them suffer caused me unbearable sorrow.

"I am not among those who are sufficiently hard-hearted to be able to take care of sick and suffering people and to be a witness of their martyrdom. My pity is too keen to permit of my beholding this spectacle; this is why I had to leave to others, less sensitive, the burden of care which my too tender heart was unable to lavish on you."

And that which is more terrible is that this man believed what he said.