"In all unmerciful actions, the worst of men pay this compliment at least to humanity, as to endeavour to wear as much of the appearance of it, as the case will well let them"
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Cruelty rarely shows up barefaced; it prefers a costume. Sterne’s sentence works like a moral x-ray, catching the way even “the worst of men” feel compelled to drape their harm in the language and posture of decency. The sting is in “pay this compliment”: humanity, he implies, retains enough social and psychological authority that vice must flatter it. If you have to pretend to be humane, you’re admitting the standard still holds.
Sterne’s syntax performs the very maneuver he’s describing. It winds and qualifies, piling on hedges (“as much of the appearance… as the case will well let them”) the way an unmerciful person piles on excuses. The result is a neat satirical turn: the sentence mimics the self-justifying bureaucracy of wrongdoing, where violence gets rebranded as necessity, discipline, order, or “just doing my job.” The phrase “appearance of it” is the blade. He’s not talking about goodness, but its stagecraft - virtue as optics.
Context matters. Sterne wrote in an 18th-century culture obsessed with “sentiment” and politeness, a world where manners served as both ethical aspiration and social camouflage. His novels (especially Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey) delight in exposing the gap between feeling and performance. Here, the target isn’t only the hypocrite; it’s the audience’s complicity in being satisfied by humane-looking cruelty. Sterne’s subtext: if appearances can launder brutality, then the real battleground is not just conscience, but the stories we tell to make harm feel respectable.
Sterne’s syntax performs the very maneuver he’s describing. It winds and qualifies, piling on hedges (“as much of the appearance… as the case will well let them”) the way an unmerciful person piles on excuses. The result is a neat satirical turn: the sentence mimics the self-justifying bureaucracy of wrongdoing, where violence gets rebranded as necessity, discipline, order, or “just doing my job.” The phrase “appearance of it” is the blade. He’s not talking about goodness, but its stagecraft - virtue as optics.
Context matters. Sterne wrote in an 18th-century culture obsessed with “sentiment” and politeness, a world where manners served as both ethical aspiration and social camouflage. His novels (especially Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey) delight in exposing the gap between feeling and performance. Here, the target isn’t only the hypocrite; it’s the audience’s complicity in being satisfied by humane-looking cruelty. Sterne’s subtext: if appearances can launder brutality, then the real battleground is not just conscience, but the stories we tell to make harm feel respectable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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