To our Journal: What shall be said of men who profess but do not practice? That they are hypocrites? Not always. As has been wisely said, Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue. A counterfeit is a circulating proof of the value of genuine money. Nobody forges the name of a bogus firm. Indeed it has, can have, no truthful signature. It is nothing, and comes of nothing.
People oft believe theoretically in what they practically reject. To wish is present with them, but not to will, because the determined will would find a way. Conscious hypocrisy is simply awful,—to profess what one deliberately disbelieves; but the weakness of will which believes well, but acts contrary to that belief,—such mental vacillation deserves our sympathy and aid to make the erring stand on firmer ground.
There are hypocrites. Woe betide them! But all are not hypocrites who are called by this name. Let us carefully distinguish between the wilfully and the weakly bad, though the latter often do the most harm,
