The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-11

then everybody who had not been born a
DiOgeneB-and the character is mostly srtih-
cial-wyuld take as much pains as he could
to avoid breaking with a body that had 80
much to give him, and SO much to snatch
away from him. 1t would be great misior-
tune, both for the individual and for society,
If Establishments and social joys were TO Trip
men up in the conscientious searou Ai'er
truth and elevation OF character, t
in frank and manly expression; pIS
there is nothing either dlsoIeulSSao1io
to man or dangerous 10 any g gouy
else in a certain strong reluotanoe 70 ouen n9l.
the opinion or feeling OF people aoOut MN,
witb whom he is accustomed to live, and TO
,yboro he owes muoh obligation. II occasion
arises when IL is above all things expedient
that some person or doctrine should be smit-
ten hin and thigh, then the unanimous YER
dict of the best persons that nave ever hved
tasti6es TO the need Of sacrificing this rightful
considerateness to what happens at the time
TO be the more binding duty Of proclaiming
truth or vehemently protesting against an
error. But the temper OF our day perhaps
attributes something too much of a merit to
the discovery of discrepancies between one
self and the bulk Of ones neighbors. Men,
and especially women, think less than they
did or than perhaps IL is well that they should
think, of flying in the face of old and decent
usage. They too often leave the beaten track,
not panied at the pain which their diver
gence gives to worthy souls to whom they
owe many debt, but rather as an army with
banners, victorious and jubilant. They too
often shake off the old things, not with
touch Of regret at parting with what has served
generation after generation Of good people, but
as clever men who have found out trick and
an imposture. There may be many causes for
such humor, and one Of them is the disre-
gard into which society has brought such
pains and penalties as it has to use. But this
after all, is only removing the difficulty a step
further back. Why have the social sanctions
grown so comparatively inefficient Why are
average social pleasures so slight, and the
deprivation of them so little felt It must be
that the world has grown 80 big; there is such
ample room and variety that men have wider
choice OF societies than they have in simpler
days and among more primitive communities.
A man must be decided villain to be univer-
sally tabooed, and on the other hand there are
not many forms of eccentricity which he can
choose to play at in which he will fail
to find playmates; and, if he has any just
force of character, it will be no drawback to
the pleasures which their companionship con-
fers upon him that they are not the vapid and
monotOnous pleasures of that lofty but far
from exhaustive section which calls itself the
world. Seen in this light, the complaint of
the decay of the efficacy Of the social penalty
does not come to very much: it only implies
that there is no longer anything like single
and uniform tribunal for that sort of diver
gency to which the complaint usually refers.
Out of the track of acts and opinions which
universal common sense holds to be pestilent,
and will not tolerate on any terms, man
may defy the opinion OF one set of people in
the just confidence that he is secure of the
approval of some other set. There is scarcely
anybody in the world and certainly not any
body worth taking into account, who is not
responsible to some social tribunal or other;
only in our modern society these tribunals are
vastly numerous-whether too numerous and
too individualized for the perfect health of
the body polite, only very wonderful philoso-
piers indeed can positively deoide.-LOndOn
,Satrday Rerie,o