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Slander - Isaac Barrow · Classic Speeches

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Section thirty three of the World's Best Orations, Volume one. This is a
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LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
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or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Gloria Lowry.
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The World's Best Orations from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Volume one
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by David J. Brewer and Edward A. Allen Slander Isaac Barrow, sixteen
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thirty sixteen seventy seven. It is not often that a sermon, however eloquent
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it may be, becomes a literary classic, as has happened to those preached
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by Barrow against evil speaking literature, That which is expressed in letters has its
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own method, foreign to that of Oregon, the art of forcing one mind
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on another by word of mouth. Literature can rely on suggestion, since it
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leaves those who do not comprehend at once free to read over again what has
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attracted their attention, without compelling their understanding. All great literature relies mostly on
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suggestion. This is the secret of Shakespeare's strength in Hamlet, as it is
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the purpose of Burks in such speeches as that at the Trial of Hastings,
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to compel immediate comprehension by crowding his meaning on the hearer in Paalanx's sentences,
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moving to the attack rank on rank, so that the first are at once
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supported and compelled by those which succeed them. It is not easy to find
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a secret by virtue of which sermons that made Barrow his reputation for eloquence escape
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the fate of most eloquent sermons so far as to find a place in the
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standard libraries of English classics. But it lies probably in their compactness, clearness,
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and simplicity. Barrow taught Sir Isaac Newton mathematics, and his style suggests
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the method of thought which Newton illustrated in such great results. Born in London
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in sixteen thirty, Barrow was educated at the Charterhouse School, at Felstede and
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at Cambridge, Belonging to a Royalist family under Cromwell. He left England after
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his graduation and traveled abroad, studying the Greek fathers in Constantinople. After the
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Restoration, he became Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge and chaplain to Charles the
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Second, who called him the best scholar in England. Celebrated for the length
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of his sermons. Barrow had nevertheless a readiness at sharp repartee, which made
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him formidable on occasion. I am yours doctor to the knee strings, said
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the Earl of Rochester, meeting him at court and seeking amusement at his expense.
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I am yours, my lord, to the shoe tie, answered the
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doctor, bowing still lower than the Earl had done. Yours doctor to the
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ground, said Rochester. Yours ray lord, to the center of the earth,
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answered Beryl, with another bow. Yours doctor to the lowest pit of
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hell, said Rochester, as he imagined in conclusion, there, my lord,
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I must leave you, was the immediate answer slander. General declamations against
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vice and sin are indeed excellently useful as rousing men to consider and look about
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them, but they do often want effect, because they only raise confused apprehensions
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of things and indeterminate propensions to action, which, usually before men thoroughly perceive
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or resolve what they should practice, do decay and vanish. As He that
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cries out fire doth stir up people and inspireth them with a kind of hovering
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tendency. Every way, Yet no man thence to purpose moveth until he be
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distinctly informed where the mischief is. Then do they who apprehend themselves concerned run
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hastily to oppose it. So till we particularly discern where our offenses lie.
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Till we distinctly know the heinous nature and the mischievous consequences of them, we
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scarce will effectually apply ourselves to correct them. Whence it is requisite that men
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should be particularly acquainted with their sins, and by proper arguments, be dissuaded
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from them, in order where to I have now selected one sin to describe
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and dissuade, from being in nature as vile and in practice as common as
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any other. Whatever that hath prevailed among men. It is slander, a
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sin which in all times and places hath been epidemical and rife, but which
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especially doth seem to reign and rage in our age and country. There are
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principles in eight to men, which ever have, and ever will incline them
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to this offense. Eager appetites to secular and sensual goods, violent passions,
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urging the prosecution of what men affect, wrath and displeasure against those who stand
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in the way of compassing their desires, emulation and envy, towards those who
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happen to succeed better or to attain a greater share in such things. Excessive
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self love, unaccountable malignity, and vanity are in some degrees connatural to all
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men, and ever prompt them to this dealing as appearing the most efficacious,
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compendious, and easy way of satisfying such appetites, of promoting such designs,
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of discharging such passions. Slander, thence hath always been a principal engine whereby
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covetous, ambitious, envious, ill natured, and vain persons have striven to
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supplant their competitors and advance themselves, meaning thereby to procure what they chiefly prize
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and like, wealth or dignity or reputation, favor and power in the court,
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respect and interest with the people. But from especial causes. Our age
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particularly doth abound in this practice. For besides the common dispositions inclining there too,
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there are conceits, newly coined and greedily entertained by many, which seem
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purposely leveled at the disparagement of piety, charity, and justice, substituting interest
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in the room of conscience, authorizing and commending for good and wise, always
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serving to private advantage. There are implacable dissensions, fierce animosities, and bitter
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zeals sprung up. There is an extreme curiosity, niceness, and delicacy of
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judgment. There is a mighty affectation of seeming wise and witty by any means.
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There is a great unsettlement of mind and corruption of manners, generally diffused
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over people from which sources. It is no wonder that this flood hath so
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overflown that no banks can restrain it, no fences are able to resist it,
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so that ordinary conversation is full of it, and no demeanor can be
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secure from it. If we do mark what is done in many, might
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I not say in most companies? What is it but one telling malicious stories
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of, or fastening odious characters upon another? What do men commonly please themselves
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in so much as in carpying and harshly censuring, in defaming and abusing their
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neighbors? Is it not the sport and diverts of many to cast dirt in
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the faces of all they meet with, to bespatter any man with foul imputations?
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Doth not in every corner a moment's lurk from the venom of who's spiteful
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or petulant tongue. No eminency of rank, dignity of place or sacredness of
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office, No innocence or integrity of life, No wisdom or circumspection in behavior,
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no good nature or benignity in dealing and carriage can protect any person.
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Do not men assume to themselves a liberty of telling romances and framing characters concerning
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their neighbors as freely as a poet doth about hector or turnus, thirsties or
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draucusts. Do they not esurp a power of playing with, or tossing about,
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of tearing in pieces their neighbor's good name, as if it were the
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various toy in the world. Do not many having a form of godliness,
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some of them demurely, others confidently, both without any sense of or remorse
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for what they do, backbite their brethren. Is it not grown so common
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a thing to disperse causelessly that no man wonders at it? That few dislike
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that scarce any detested? That most notorious calumniators are heard not only with patience
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but with pleasure. Yea are even held in vogue and reverence, as men
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of notable talent and very serviceable to their party, so that slander seemeth to
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have lost its nature, and not to be now an odious sin, but
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a fashionable humor, a way of pleasing entertainment, a fine knack, or
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curious feat of policy, so that no man at least taketh himself or others
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to be accountable for what is said in this way is not in fine.
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The case becomes such that whoever hath in him any love of truth, any
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sense of justice, or honest any spark of charity towards his brethren, shall
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hardly be able to satisfy himself in the conversations he meeteth, but will be
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tempted with the Holy Prophet to wish himself sequestered from society and cast into solitude,
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repeating those words of his Oh, that I had in the wilderness a
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lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from
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them, for they are an assembly of treacherous men, and they bend their
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tongues like their beau. For lies this he wished in an age so resembling
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ours, that I fear the description with equal patness may suit both. Take
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ye heed, said he then, and may we not advise the like now
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every one of his neighbor, And trust ye not in any brother, for
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every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders. They
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will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. They
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have their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. Such
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being the state of things obvious to experience. No discourse may seem more needful
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or more useful than that which serveth to correct or check this practice, which
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I shall endeavor to do, One by describing the nature, two by declaring
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the folly of it, or showing it to be very true, which the
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wise man here asserteth he that uttereth slander is a fool, which particulars I
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hope so to prosecute, that any man shall be able easily to discern and
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ready heartily to detest this practice. One for explication of its nature. We
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may describe slander to be the uttering false, or equivalent to false, morally
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false speech against our neighbor in prejudice to his fame, his safety, his
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wealth, concernment in any kind, out of malignity, vanity, rashness,
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ill nature, or bad design, that which is in Holy Scripture forbidden and
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reproved under several names and notions of bearing false witness, false accusation, railing,
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sinsure, sycophantry, tale bearing, whispering, backbiting, supplanting, taking
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up, reproach, which terms some of them do signify the nature, others
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denote the special kinds, Others imply the manners. Others suggest the ends of
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this practice. But it seemeth most fully intelligible by observing the several kinds and
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degrees thereof, as also by reflecting on the diverse ways and manners of practicing
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it. The principal kinds thereof I observe to be these. One the grossest
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kind of slander is that which in the Decalogue is called bearing false testimony against
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our neighbor, that is, flatly charging him with acts which he never committed
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and is no wise guilty of, As in the case of Naboth, when
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men were suborn to say Naboth did blaspheme God and the King, And as
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was David's case, when he thus complained, false witnesses did rise up.
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They laid to my charge things that I knew. Not of this kind is
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the highest way that is in judicial proceedings is more rare, and of all
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men, they who are detected to practice it are held most vile and infamous,
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as being plainly the most pernicious and perilous instruments of injustice, the most
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desperate enemies of all man's right and safety that can be. But also out
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of the court, there are many knights errant of the poet, whose business
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it is to run about scattering false reports, sometimes loudly proclaiming them in open
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companies, sometimes closely whispering them in dark corners, thus infecting conversation with their
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poisonous breath. These no less notoriously are guilty of this kind, as bearing
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always the same malice, and sometimes breeding as ill effects. Two. Another
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kind is of fixing scandalous names injurious epithets and odious characters upon persons which they
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deserve, not as when Corah and his accomplices did accuse Moses of being ambitious,
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unjust, and tyrannical, when the Pharisees called our Lord an impostor,
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a blasphemer, a sorcerer, a glutton, and a winebibber, an incendiary
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and perverter of the people, one that spake against Caesar and forbade to give
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tribute when the apostles were charged with being pestilent, turbulent, factuous, and
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seditious fellows, this sort being very common, and thence in ordinary repute not
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so bad, yet in just estimation, may be judged even worse than the
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former, as doing to our neighbor, more heavy and more irreparable wrong,
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for it imposeth on him really more blame, and that such which he can
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hardly shake off. Because the charge signifies habits of evil and includeth many acts.
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Then, being general and indefinite, can scarce be disproved? He,
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for instance, that Calleth, a sober man drunkard, doth impute to him
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many acts of such intemperance, some really pass, others probably future, and
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no particular time or place being specified. How can a man clear himself of
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that imputation, especially with those who are not thoroughly acquainted with his conversation?
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So he that Calleth, a man unjust, proud, perverse, hypocritical,
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doth load him with most grievous faults, which it is not possible that the
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most innocent person should discharge himself from three like to that kind. Is this
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aspersing a man's actions with harsh censures and foul terms, importing that they proceed
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from ill principles or tend to bad ends, so as it does not or
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cannot appear. Thus, when we say of him that is generally hospitable,
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that he is profuse, of him that is prudently frugal, that he is
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niggardly, of him that is cheerful and free in his conversation, that he
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is vain or loose of him that is serious and resolute in a good way,
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that he is sullen or morose, of him that is conspicuous and brisk
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in virtuous practice, That it is ambition or ostentation which prompts him of him
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that is close and bashful in the like good way, that it is sneaking
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stupidity or want of spirit of him that is reserved, That it is craft
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of him that is open, that it is simplicity in him. When we
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ascribe a man's liberality and charity to vainglory or popularity, his strictness of life
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and constancy in devotion to superstition or hypocrisy, When I say we pass such
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censures, or impose such characters on the laudable or innocent practice of our neighbors,
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we are indeed slanderers, imitating therein the great Calumniator, who thus did
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slander even God himself, imputing his prohibition of the fruit unto envy towards men.
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God said he doth know that in the day ye eat, thereof your
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eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
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evil. Who thus did ascribe the steady piety of Job not to a conscientious
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love and fear of God, but to policy and selfish design, doth Job
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fear God for nought. Whoever, indeed pronounceth concerning his neighbor's intentions otherwise than
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as they are evidently expressed by words or signified by overt actions, is a
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slanderer, because he pretendeth to know and dareth to ever that which he knoweis
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possibly can tell whether it be true, because the heart is exempt from all
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jurisdiction here is only subject to the government and trial of another world. Because
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no man can judge concerning the truth of such accusations, because no man can
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exempt or defend himself from them, so that apparently such practice doth thwart all
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course of justice and equity. Four. Another kind is perverting a man's words
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or actions disadvantageously by affected misconstruction. All words are ambiguous and capable of different
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senses, some fair, some more foul. All actions have two handles,
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one that candor and charity will, another that disingenuity and spite may lay hold
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on. And in such cases to misapprehend is a calumnious procedure, arguing malignant
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disposition and mischievous design. Thus, when two men did witness that our Lord
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affirmed he could demolish the temple and rear it again in three days, although
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he did indeed speak words to that purpose, meaning them in a figurative sense,
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discernible enough to those who would candidly have minded his drift and way of
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speaking. Yet they who crudely alleged them against him are called false witnesses.
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At last, saith the Gospel came two false witnesses and said, this fellow
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said I am able to destroy the temple, et cetera. Thus, also
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when some certified of Saint Stephen as having said that Jesus of Nazareth should destroy
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that place and change the customs that Moses delivered, although probably he did speak
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words near to that purpose. Yet are those men called false witnesses and saith
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Saint Luke? They set up false witnesses which said this man ceaseth not to
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speak blasphemous words, et cetera, which instances do plainly show, if we
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would avoid the guilt of slander, how careful we should be to interpret fairly
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and favorably the words and actions of our neighbor. Five. Another sort of
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this practice is partial and lame representation of men's discourse or their practice, suppressing
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some part of the truth in them, or concealing some circumstances about them,
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which might serve to explain, to excuse, or to extenuate them. In
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such a manner easily without uttering any logical untruth, one may yet grievously calumniate.
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Thus, suppose a man speaketh a thing upon a supposition, or with
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exception, or in way of objection, or merely for disputation's sake, in
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order to the discussion or clearing of truth, he that should report him asserting
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it absolutely, unlimitedly, positively, and peremptorily, as his own subtled judgment
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would notoriously calumniate. If one should be inveigled by fraud, or driven by
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violence, or slip by chance into a bad place or bad company, he
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that should so represent the gross of that accident as to breed an opinion of
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that person, that, out of pure disposition and design, he did put
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himself there, doth slanderously abuse that innocent person. The reporter in such cases
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must not think to defend himself by pretending that he spake nothing false. For
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such propositions, however true in logic, may justly be deemed lies in morality,
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being uttered with a malicious and deceitful that is, with a calumnious mind,
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being apt to impress false conceits and to produce hurtful effects concerning our neighbor.
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There are slanderous truths as well as slanderous falsehoods. When truth is uttered
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with a deceitful heart and to a base end, it becomes a lie.
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He that speaketh the truth saith. The wise man showeth forth righteousness, but
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a false witness deceit. Deceiving is the proper work of slander. And truth
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abused to that end putteth on its nature and will engage into like guilt.
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Six. Another kind of calumny is by instilling sly suggestions, which, although
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they do not downrightly assert falsehoods, yet they breed sinister opinions in the hearers,
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especially in those who, from weakness or credulity, from jealousy or prejudice,
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from negligence or inadvertency, are prone to entertain them. This is done
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in many ways by propounding wily suppositions, shrewd insinuations, crafty questions, and
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species comparisons, intimating a possibility or inferring some likelihood of, and thence seducing
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to believe the fact. Doth not saith this kind of slanderer his temper incline
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him to do Thus, may not his interest have swayed him there too,
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had he not fair opportunity and strong temptation to it? Hath he not acted
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so? In like cases? Judge you therefore, or whether he did it
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not. Thus the close slenderer argueth, and a weak or prejudiced person is
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thereby so caught that he presently is ready, thence to conclude the thing done
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again he doeth well, saith the sycophant. It is true? But why
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and to what end? Is it not, as most men do out of
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ill design? May he not dissemble? Now? May he not recoil hereafter?
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Have not others made as fair as show? Yet we know what came
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of it? Thus do calumnious tongues pervert the judgments of men to think ill
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of the most innocent, and meanly of the worthiest actions. Even commendation itself
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is often used calumniously with intent to breed dislike and ill will towards a person
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commended in envious or jealous ears, or so as to give passages to dispraises
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and render the accusations following more credible. Tis an artifice commonly observed to be
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much in use there where the finest tricks of supplanting are practiced with greatest effect,
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so that pessimum imicorum genus laudantes, there is no more pestilent enemy than
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a malevolent praiser. All these kinds of dealing as an issue from the principles
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of slander, and perform its work, so they deservedly bear the guilt thereof
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seven. A like kind is that of oblique and covert reflections. When a
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man doth not directly or expressly charge his neighbor with faults, but yet so
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speaketh that he is understood or reasonably presumed to do it. This is a
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very cunning and very mischievous way of slandering, For therein the skulking calumniator keepeth
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a reserve for himself and cutteth off from the person concerned the means of defense.
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If he goeth to clear himself from the matter of such aspersions? What
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need saith the insidious speaker of that must I needs mean? You? Did
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I name you? Why do you then assume it to yourself? Do you
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not prejudge yourself guilty? I did not, but your own conscious it seemeth
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doth accuse you. You are so jealous and suspicious as persons overwise or guilty
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used to be. So meaneth this serpent out of the hedge securely and unavoidably
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to bite his neighbor, and is in that respect more base and more hurtful
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than the most flat and positive slanderer. Eight. Another kind is that of
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magnifying and aggravating the faults of others, raising any small miscarriage into a heinous
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crime, any slender defect into an odious vice, and any common infirmity into
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a strange enormity, turning a small mote in the eye of our neighbor into
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a huge beam, a little dimple in his face into a monstrous when this
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is plainly slander, at least in degree, and according to the surplusage,
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whereby the censure doth exceed the fault. As he that upon the score of
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a small debt doth extort a great sum, is no less a thief in
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regard to what amounts beyond his d than if without any pretense he had violently
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or fraudulently seized on it. So he is a slanderer, that, by
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heightening faults or imperfections, doth charge his neighbor with greater blame, or load
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him with more disgrace than he deserves. Tis not only slander to pick a
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hole where there is none, but to make that wider, which is so
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that it appereth more ugly and cannot so easily be mended. For charity is
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wont to extenuate faults. Justice doth never exaggerate them, as no man is
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exempt from some defects, or can live free from some misdemeanors. So by
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this practice every man may be rendered very odious and infamous. Nine. Another
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kind of slander is imputing to our neighbor's practice, judgment, or profession evil
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consequences apt to render him odious or despicable, which have no dependence on them
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or connection with them their due. In every age occur disorders and mishaps,
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springing from various complications of causes, working some of them in more open and
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discernible, others in a more secret and subtle way, especially from divine judgment
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and providence, checking or chastising sin. From such occurrences, it is common
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to snatch occasion and matter of calumny. Those who are disposed this way are
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ready peremptorily to charge them upon whomsoever they dislike or dissent from, although without
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any apparent cause, or upon most frivolous and senseless pretenses, Often when reason
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showeth quite the contrary, and they who are so charged are in just esteem
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of all men, the least obnoxious to such accusations. So usually the best
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friends of mankind, those who most heartily wish the peace and prosperity of the
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world, and most earnestly to their power strive to promote them, have all
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the disturbances and disasters happening charged on them by those fiery vixens, who,
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in pursuance of their base designs or gratification of their wild passions, really do
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themselves embroil things and raise miserable combustions in the world. So it is that
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they who have the conscience to do mischief will have the confidence also to disavow
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the blame and the iniquity to lay the burden of it on those who are
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most innocent. Thus, whereas nothing more disposeth men to live orderly and peaceably,
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nothing more conduceth to the settlement and safety of the public. Nothing so
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much draweth blessings down from Heaven upon the commonwealth as true religion. Yet nothing
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hath been more ordinary than to attribute all the miscarriages and mischiefs that happened unto
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it, even those are laid at his door, which plainly do arise from
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the contempt or neglect of it, being the natural fruits or the just punishment
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of irreligion. King ahab By, for seeking God's commandments and following wicked superstitions,
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had troubled Israel, drawing sore judgments and calamities thereon. Yet had he
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the heart and face to charge those events on the greater assertor of piety.
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Elias art thou he that troubleth Israel. The Jews, by provocation of divine
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justice, had set themselves in a fair way towards desolation and ruin this event
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to come. They had the presumption to lay upon the faith of our Lord's
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doctrine. If said they we let him alone, all men will believe on
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him, and the Romans shall come and take away our place and nation.
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Whereas in truth a compliance with his directions and admonitions had been the only means
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to prevent those presaged mischiefs, and see Tibris Assinderate in Mania. If any
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public calamity did appear, then Christianos ad leones Christians must be charged and persecuted
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as the causes thereof to them. It was that Julian and other Pagans did
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impute all the discussions, confusions, and devastations falling upon the Roman Empire the
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sacking of Rome by the Goths. They cast upon Christianity for the vindication of
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it, from which reproach Saint Augustine did write those renowned books De Civitate dei
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so liable are the best and most innocent sort of men to be calumniously accused
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in this manner. Another practice worthily burying the guilt of slander is aiding and
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being accessory there too, by anywise furthering, cherishing abetting it. He that,
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by crafty significations of ill will doth prompt the slanderer to vent his poison.
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He that, by a willing audience and attention, doth readily suck it
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up, Or who greedily swalloweth it down by credulous approbation and assent, He
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that pleasingly relisheth it and smacketh at it, or expresseth a delightful complaisance therein
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as he is a partner in the fact, so he is a sharer in
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the guilt. There are not only slander's throats, but slander's ears. Also,
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not only wicked inventions which engender and brood lies, but wicked assents which
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hatch and foster them. Not only the spiteful mother that conceiveth such spurious brats,
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but the midwife that helpeth to bring them forward, the nurse that feedeth
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them, the guardian that traineth them up to maturity, and setteth them forth
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to live in the world as they do. Really contribute to their subsistence so
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deservedly. They partake in the blame due to them, and must be responsible
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for the mischief they do. End of Section thirty three. Slander by Isaac Barrow