and similar monuments of history.

And of all the shifting pageant of life, by far the most
interesting and exquisite part is our relations with the other
souls who are bound on the same pilgrimage. One desires ardently to
know what other people feel about it all--what their points of view
are, what their motives are, what are the data on which they form
their opinions--so that to cut off the discussion of other
personalities, on ethical grounds, is like any other stiff and
Puritanical attempt to limit interests, to circumscribe experience,
to maim life. The criticism, then, or the discussion, of other
people is not so much a CAUSE of interest in life, as a SIGN of it;
it is no more to be suppressed by codes or edicts than any other
form of temperamental activity. It is no more necessary to justify
the habit, than it is necessary to give good reasons for eating or
for breathing; the only thing that it is advisable to do, is to lay
down certain rules about it, and prescribe certain methods of
practising it. The people who do not desire to discuss others, or
who disapprove of doing it, may be pronounced to be, as a rule,
either stupid, or egotistical, or Pharisaical; and sometimes they
are all three. The only principle to bear in mind is the principle
of justice. If a man discusses others spitefully or malevolently,
with the sole intention of either extracting amusement out of their
foibles, or with the still more odious intention of emphasizing his
own virtues by discovering the weakness of others, or with the
cynical desire--which is perhaps the lowest of all--of proving the
whole business of human life to be a vile and sordid spectacle,
then he may be frankly disapproved of, and if possible avoided; but
if a man takes a generous view of humanity, if he admires what is
large and noble, if he gives full credit for kindliness, strength,