Chap. II.]

CHRISTIAN CHARITY.

385

reputation is equally difficult of preservation when it is attained.Unlike the possession of tangible property, which rests on astable title, and is effectually protected by the law of the country,reputation is a possession which floats on the slight and airyfoundation of public opinion and popular favor ; and is, therefore,subject to the fluctuations of the uncertain element by which it isupborne. It is more valuable than any thing else which we cancall our own. Still it is perhaps the most insecure of all humanpossessions. Frail in its foundation, slight in its structure, anddelicate in its materials, it is peculiarly exposed to be injured bysecret insinuations, and to be blasted by the poisoned shafts ofmisrepresentation and slander.

There are certain classes of persons, who, by reason of sex,profession, or other peculiar circumstances in their condition,occupy a position in society so delicate, that the very breath ofsuspicion is absolute and perhaps irremediable ruin to all theirprospects. To their usefulness and happiness it is indispensa-ble, that their characters be, not only without just ground ofreproach, but that they be equally above suspicion and aboveimputation. Such classes of persons are peculiarly exposed tothe arts of the disingenuous, the malicious, and the vindictive.Forming their designs in secret, their attacks are unseen and un-known by the victim against whom they aim. Suoh practicesare the very height of both injustice and cruelty. Of injustice,since the victim is accused, he knows not by whom, tried, heknows not when, and condemned, he knows not for what cause ;— of cruelty, because his dearest possessions are taken from himwithout a crime and by an unseen hand. In this way, hundredshave found public confidence and respect, and even the attach-ment of their friends, gradually and silently withdrawn from themwithout any fault of theirs, to the ruin or lasting injury of them-selves and all who were depending on them. Before we permitourselves to assail the reputation of others by misrepresentationand calumny, or to undermine them by imputation and slander,we may well reflect on the value of the possession which we areso willing to destroy. An ordinary self-interest, if any are inac-cessible to higher motives, might induce them to abstain fromundermining the reputation of others by secret means, inasmuch49