"This salad is very gritty," said a gentleman to Douglas Jerrold at a
dinner party. "Gritty," said Jerrold, "it's a mere gravel path with a
few weeds in it." That was very unfair on the salad.

3. _Criticism should be appropriate_.

I mean by this something different from proportionate. Sometimes the
language of criticism is not that of exaggeration, but yet it is quite as
inappropriate. The critic may have taken his seat too high or too low
for a proper survey, or he may, by want of education or by carelessness,
use quite the wrong words to express his meaning. You will hear a man
say, "I was enchanted with the Biglow Papers," or "I was charmed with the
hyenas at the Zoological Gardens." I think one of the distinguishing
characteristics of a gentleman, and what makes the society of educated
gentlemen so pleasant, is that their language is appropriate without
effort. "'What a delicious shiver is creeping over those limes!' said
Lancelot, half to himself. The expression struck Argemone; it was the
right one." This is what makes some people's conversation so
interesting. It is full of appropriate language. This is perhaps even
more the case with educated ladies. I think it is Macaulay who says that
the ordinary letter of an English lady is the best English style to be
found anywhere.

"It would be bad _grammar_," said Cobbett, "to say of the House of
Commons, 'It is a sink of iniquity, and they are a set of rascally
swindlers.'" Of course, the bad grammar is almost immaterial. The
expression is either a gross libel or a lamentable fact. "If a man,"
said Sydney Smith, "were to kill the minister and churchwardens of his
parish nobody would accuse him of want of taste. The Scythians always