102 MANNERS AND FA8IIIOX. 



the inanities of gloved and scented party-goers men who 

 feel no need to come morally nearer to their fellow crea 

 tures than they can come while standing, tea-cup in Land, 

 answering trifles with trifles ; and who, by feeling no such 

 need, prove themselves shallow-thoughted and cold-hearted. 



It is true, that some who shun drawing-rooms do so from 

 inability to bear the restraints prescribed by a genuine re 

 finement, and that they would be greatly improved by being 

 kept inider these restraints. But it is not less true that, by 

 adding to the legitimate restraints, which arc based on con. 

 vcniencc and a regard for others, a host of factitious re 

 straints based only on convention, the refining discipline, 

 which would else have been borne with beneiit, is rendered 

 unbearable, and so misses its end. Excess of government 

 invariably defeats itself by driving away those to be gov 

 erned. And if over all who desert its entertainments in 

 disgust either at their emptiness or their formality, society 

 thus loses its salutary influence if such not only fail to re 

 ceive that moral culture which the company of ladies, when 

 rationally regulated, Avould give them, but, in default of 

 other relaxation, are driven into habits and companionships 

 which often end in gambling and drunkenness ; must we 

 not say that here, too, is an evil not to be passed over as 

 insignificant ? 



Then consider what a blighting effect these multitudi 

 nous preparations and ceremonies have iipon the pleasures 

 they profess to subserve. Who, on calling to mind the oc 

 casions of his highest social enjoyments, docs not find them 

 to have been wholly informal, perhaps impromptu ? How 

 delightful a picnic of friends, who forget all observances 

 nave those dictated by good nature ! How pleasant the 

 little unpretended gatherings of book-societies, and the 

 like ; or those purely accidental meetings of a lew people 

 well known to each other ! Then, indeed, we may sec that 

 &quot; a man sharpeueth the countenance of his friend.&quot; Cheeks 



