The Merry Past 



to them the scene is always the same : and though 

 their conditions of existence have been improved, 

 few of the amenities of social life are within their 

 reach. 



The affectation of superhuman benevolence and 

 fine feeling has become a profession — numbers of 

 people make a good living out of " Social Reform." 

 Many of these no doubt are sincere, but others exactly 

 resemble the Puritan who administered the celebrated 

 rebuke to Charles II. When that monarch had been 

 guilty of some gross breach of decorum and decency 

 with a loose woman, which attracted the notice of the 

 clergy, it was resolved to reprove him for his incon- 

 tinence and public transgression. The body of the 

 clergy having appeared in the Audience Room ; one 

 of them, of the name of Douglas, persuaded the 

 others to let him go up alone to the King, in order 

 that he might rebuke him with greater asperity. He 

 accordingly walked up to Charles, but instead of the 

 expected admonition, gravely, and in a low tone of 

 voice, advised his Majesty when he did such a thing 

 again, to be sure and shut the shutters ! 



Within the last sixty or seventy years an insidious 

 spirit of almost frankly tolerated hypocrisy has in- 

 sinuated itself into English life ; as a result public 

 men are practically forced to be perpetually indulging 

 in one form or other of cant, which in some cases 

 turns their whole existence into a carefully acted lie. 



The difference which so often exists between a 

 man's public utterances and his doings in private life 

 is well shown by the following incident, which oc- 



8 



