I do not care to talk much about this clock; because when I tell the
simple truth concerning it, people think I am exaggerating.
It is very discouraging to find, when you are straining every nerve to
tell the truth, that people do not believe you, and fancy that you are
exaggerating. It makes you feel inclined to go and exaggerate on
purpose, just to show them the difference. I know I often feel
tempted to do so myself--it is my early training that saves me.
We should always be very careful never to give way to exaggeration; it
is a habit that grows upon one.
And it is such a vulgar habit, too. In the old times, when poets and
dry-goods salesmen were the only people who exaggerated, there was
something clever and _distingue_ about a reputation for "a tendency to
over, rather than to under-estimate the mere bald facts." But
everybody exaggerates nowadays. The art of exaggeration is no longer
regarded as an "extra" in the modern bill of education; it is an
essential requirement, held to be most needful for the battle of life.
The whole world exaggerates. It exaggerates everything, from the
yearly number of bicycles sold to the yearly number of heathens
converted--into the hope of salvation and more whiskey.
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