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individual student whom I cannot bring myself deep down in my heart to like much, or with whom, even though I like him, there has been any sort of friction — over grades, assignment, or behavior. This, I believe, is a rule one should apply to all raillery. One should absolutely never tease except from a kindly and friendly heart. And the correct technique of teasing is that underneath the discomfiture we seem to be administering, there be a sort of implied compliment. Swift for all time laid down the correct technique of the matter. Properly executed, raillery is "to say something that at first appears a reproach or reflection, but by some turn of wit, unexpected and surprising, ends always in a compliment." Once the King met Dr. Johnson and reproached him for not having written anything lately. As the great lexicographer struggled to bear up against the reproach, the King said that he should not mind his having written nothing lately, if he had not formerly written so well. This in general ought to be the spirit of raillery. You say, "I am so sorry you were wearing your new hat the other day as you strolled through the square." Then as the wearer and others begin to think that perhaps you did not like her hat, you add, "It made it absolutely impossible for me to get a glimpse of your eyes." You say, "I am not on friendly terms with my mother just now. Yesterday, no matter how I begged her she refused me a second piece of her delicious pumpkin pie. When I came home a few hours later, what do I see, but a beggar sitting on the back steps eating that piece of pie." You say, "Have you noticed how Susan is eating lately — adding pounds and curves by leaps and bounds. Why, it is getting so one can't |
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