Chapter XII

“In which it is shown that a man does this or declines to do
that for reasons best known to himself--a reserve which is
extremely conducive to the social interests of a community;
since the conjecture into the origin and nature of those reasons
stimulates the inquiring faculties, and furnishes the staple
of modern conversation. And as it is not to be denied that, if
their neighbors left them nothing to guess at, three fourths
of civilized humankind, male or female, would have nothing to
talk about; so we cannot too gratefully encourage that needful
curiosity, termed by the inconsiderate tittle-tattle or scandal,
which saves the vast majority of our species from being reduced
to the degraded condition of dumb animals.”