The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-12-06 00:00:00

"THE IDOLS OF SOCIETY."

On Friday evening in last week, Mre.William Grey,
well known by her labours in the CiIWO of education,
delivered • highly Interesting and characteristic lecture
at the Chelan Literary and Scientific Institution,
before a large and influential audience, taking for her
theme "The Idols of Society ;" the Rev. Canon
Kingsley presided; and the following short sketch of
which is from The Times :
After a few preliminary observations explanatory of
her choice of a liubject for the occasion, Mrs. Grey
said in the course of her labours for improving the edu-
cation of women else had been met by sundry obstacles
—" idols," am Lord Bacon termed those tales beliefs
and faille objects of popular :reverence which hindered
the light of truths, usurped the homage, and exercised
ths sway over human life that rightfully belonged to
the true principles those idols had displacnd, and the
conviction had been forced upon her that until those
could be cleared out of the way no large progress WY
to be hoped for. The " idols " of society with which
she bad to deal were two—the name of one being Gent!.
tity ; for the other she must coin • Lame, and gall it
Faminity. Both were degraded symbols of a once noble
worship, the traversity of noble Ideals: for Gentility
was the counterfeit of true Gentlehuo 3, and Feminity
the counterfeit of true Womenilness. To expose the
meaunees and emptiness of these counterfeits by con-
trasting them with the worth and nobleness of the
things they professed to be and were not, and by so
doing, if possible, ti topple the* down from the place
o wurrtfra tr.-redeye
too cdventuroue design of her lecture. In ancient
parlance the word " gentle "indicated notonly a quality
of manner, but real distinctions et birth and of breeding
befitting the birth. Gentle birth meant descent from
noble ancestry, and gentle breeding was the training in
th ale virtues and accomplishments which were deemed
essential accompaniments of noble births. Had
aristocracies, she said, always acted up to a motto
which might be translated "B. noble in deed as in
name" we should never have heard of the rise of de-
mocracies; for the multitude must and would always
have leaders, and aristocracies were founded by those
whose inborn superiority made them the natural and
inevitable kings of men. When that inborn and, in very
truth. Divine right to rule was lost, and aristocracies
retained only the outward chow of nobility, tiss in-
herited power and prestige which their founders won,
he change might remain for centuries unperceived, sad
the yoke of sidambsion unbroken; but when one of

those periods of trandtion, which was in fact revolts.'
tion, came, such as that initiated In Felines by the first
revolutions, such se we were living in now, when all
things were put on their trial, then would the aris-
tocracy, which, like the French in 1789, had become
rotten at the core and incapable of any natural leader.
ship, be cast aside aa found wanting, and the people
would cry for new leaders who could peeve by their
deed. that they, in their turn, poseessed the Divine
right, hecense the inborn power, of leadership. Mrs.
Grey went on to say that Gentility, so called, like 1
Buddha, had many incarnations, and resided for
each clam in the class immediately above It. For the
small shopkeeper it dwelt in the larger tradesman ; the
latter saw it in the manufacturer, the merchant, the SOO.
cessful professional man ; these again bowed down Wore
rank, which had been called the heaven of the middle
clime. Those different incarnations of Gentility bad
also their different localities. There was a genteel mad
a nou.genteel quarter in every county town Mikis
had nothing in oommon but the parish church, and
not always that, for the genteel, as a rule, went to
church, and the non-genteel preferred chapel. There '
was, however, no istramehle barrier inPaantinif emtda"
tiara of gentility; there was agate from the one to the
other, and the open maw was—money. In what
way the millionaire made his money was a trifling de-
tail which need not be inquired into. We are • practical
people, even in our gentility, and, If the gilding on an
idol were but thick enough, why look below it to dis-
cover whether Its feet were of braes or even of vilest
clay? Having seen what their idol was Slade of, let
them now look to the laws it imposed on its wonhip-
pers. They were not to be found in any written
code, but were rather of the nature of those
unspoken customs which were none the less
binding that they were verbally expressed. After
careful observation of the habite and opinions of the
genteel classes, she thought they might be summarized
with tolerable wcuracy in the following precepts :
"First do no manner of useful work, that you can afford
to leave undone (a laugh): for work is the necessity of
the vulgar, and idleness the privilege of the supremely
genteel. Second, U you cannot afford to keep this law
of idleness', enforce it with double severity on your
wives and especially your daughters, for in their 01/4)
work is not only ungrateful; it is also unfeminine."
The third precept was addressed, she wai going to say,
to women, forgetting that in the realm of eentilny there
were no women—only ladies. (A. laugh.) It ran thus 1—
"If you would be genteel, be, Of at least seem to be,
weak and helpless, requiring service from all and
doing none to any. Be ornamental, if you can, but
beware of being useful." (A laugh.) The fourth pre-
cept said, "Do in all things what your neighbours do
who are above you in rank and fortune. They who
depart one jut or one tittle fr.on this law shall not
enter the kingdom of gentility." Last, and most im-
portant, was this: "Fret not yourselves, about what
you are; only about what you seem; cleanse and gild
the outside of the platter ; this is what gentility require'
of you; you may attend to the Inside on Sundays L..
It is without doubt genteel to go to church, provided
always that you see as well dressed as your richer
neighbours." (A laugh.) Mrs. Grey proceeded to com-
ment en the effects of the worship of gentility and
en it. different names and forms upon the social and
domestic life of the claims among whom it prevailed,
remarking that the most important effect of any wide-
spread and strongly-held belief wan the idea it held up
for admiration and imitation. Of these she gave illus-
trations, into which, as into other pinto of her dis-
course, however interesting or amusing in theonelves,
our space does not admit of our entering.
At the conclusion of the lecture, of which this is
necessarily but a summary, and which abounded In
pages of much interest, as well in of humour and
pathos, a most cot dial and gratifying vote of thanks
was accorded to Mrs. %Grey, and the meeting ter-
minafsd.