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Scandal is the shock or disapproval expressed in talk over the misdoings of anyone, be he humble or famous, near or far. Oscar Wilde cleverly said, "Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality." However, he is wrong in designating gossip as made tedious by morality. Juvenal more correctly wrote, . . . there's a lust in man no charm can tame, Of loudly publishing his neighbor's shame. Wilde, who himself was finally ruined by a scandal, should more correctly have said, not that it is made tedious by morality, but that it is the terror of the wicked. It is generally a greater deterrent to wrongdoing than the police or the dungeon. The fear that "people will talk" has kept more girls virgins than the fear of the maternity ward. Scandal is the vote of the people against sin. There is, therefore, some value in it. No tyranny can stop it, no dictatorship can ultimately withstand it. It is a sort of mob judgment on sin, or |
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