102 MAls^NERS AND FASHIOX. 



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 hand, 

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

 adding to the legitimate restraints, which are based on con- 

 venience and a regard for others, a host of factitious re- 

 straints based only on convention, the refinmg discipline, 

 which would else have been borne with benefit, 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 cmly fail to re- 

 ceive that moral culture which the company of ladies, when 

 rationally regulated, would 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 

 msignificant ? 



Then consider what a blighting eflfect these multitudi- 

 nous preparations and ceremonies have upon the pleasures 

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

 casions of his highest social enjoyments, does not find them 

 to have been wholly informal, perhaps impromptu ? How 

 delightful a picnic of friends, who forget all observances 

 save those dictated by good nature ! How pleasant tlio 

 little unpretended gatherings of book-societies, and the 

 like ; or those purely accidental meetings of a few people 

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

 " a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." Cheeks 



