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

n, and must always remain, one Of the most
important subjects of the anxiety Of men who
study the conditions Of human progress. In
excess IL plainly leads to the most pernicious
results, by sitting those eccentric growths OF
opinion and feeling out of which new and i'm
proved forms have to be taken and shaped by
y process akin to that Of natural selection
among species, and without which the exigen-
cies Of circumstances must infallibly outstrip
the means Of satisfying them; and 80 con-
fused kind Of despair grows up in the minds,
and stagnation in the habits, OF men. On the
other hand, deficiency in this pressure leads
TO evils hardly, IL at all, less grievous than
those which come Of its excess. That every
body should be legally at liberty to follow
his own will In. the few purely self-regard-
Ing kinds Of action, and in all matters oi
feeling and opinion, is a maxim which needs
no comment nor confirmation either IN
England or In any other country which mas
taken it's ideas upon law from English institu-
lions. Thus much is a clearly proven Pieoe
OF wisdom which no English or American law
Kiver is at all likely TO overlook. Ihe law,
we may be quite sure, will never repair any
neglect on the part Of the community 10 PuhlSn
dissent from the ruling and accepted IDEAS OF
che time But is there no danger OF thls
neglect oocurringH no danger of their spring.
ing MP largely an Indifference to the claims OF
aeoepted msxims of conduct, an under-esti-
mate of the value of social accord, passionate
readiness of selfassertiOn, foolish, thought
less and in certain conditions of temper,
malignant contempt for the advantages which
the social union oonfers even upon those who
have most diverged from the beliefs which
have been chiefly instrumental in binding our
modern society together If this be so, and
4here are some wise observers who profess to
entertain apprehensions In this direction, then
IL is certain that the penalties which society
that is to say, the majority Of the circle to
which a man belongs-bas in its power to
inflict have lost their efficacy as deterrents,
and that a growing number of persons are
less and less moved by fear of them. 1t is
worth while to put this in another way, per-
haps that the pleasures which society has to
offer, and its, prizes, and everything else, have
lost their attractions for many minds, so that
TO be deprived of them counts for less than 1t
might do, or than it used to do. People of
certain sort, and that hardly the lowest sort
either, venture to encounter the disapproval
of sets and circles to which they belong, be-
cause their approval brings no consequences
that they are capable of holding dear. In
other words, opinion has not moved equally
over the face of society. One portion of the
world has pushed on or aside, while the rest
has remained stationary and fixed in little
narrow circle of ideas, pursuits, and pastimes,
which the others have outgrOwn. The stiffen-
ing OF social forms, the ever-growing rigidity
Of etiquettes, the multiplication of fashiona-
BILE shibboleths of speech and thought and
habit-all this means the voluntary self
exclusion of a good many people of indepen-
dent humor from a life which cramps, re-
strains, and infinitely wearies them.
And the striking thing is, as we have just
hinted, that those who hout society, and re-
treat to rural hermitages, or shut themselves
mp in solitary chambers-Or else, while feign-
ing solitude, enjoy companionships unreceg-
nizable by drawing -rooms--are not by any
means people of the lowest sort, either in in
teligence, aspiration, position, or general
social goodwill. They are no mauraiS Sujets
out-at-elbows, insOlvent, inveterate foes to the
minor courtesies, hostile to the tailed coat.
On the contrary, in all these things they are
found blameless. Their bills are paid, their
clothes we'll made, their linen good, their salu-
tatiOn and aooOst beyond reproach. Neither,
again, are they as a rule mere cynios. 1t is
not because they despise lie, and its enormous
tasks and tiny accomplishments that they
save themselves (to use a French idiom) from
the fsVorite haunts of the majority of their
fellows rather because they esteem life too
precious to bs given away to folly and
grievous hollowness. 1t is probably inevitable
that little folly and great deal of hollow
ness should grow into communities that are
very large, very rich, and, from their unmel-
lowed age and fundamental constitution, very
artificial. But the inevitable is still very often
that to which the best minds least easily re-
o0noile themselves. This or that may be no
more than the necessary result of condi-
lions which no mortal man can repair or much
modify; yet we like it just as little, and are
just as little ready to submit ourselves to its
burden. Hence, the more unavoidable you
show the artifciality of society to be, not the
less but the more are people whom artiticiality
Fevolts disposed to turn their backs on the
scene, and seek simplicity in solitude or else
in aliona ia Onita frnQ that N naifhar
of these two resorts are they sure of finding
what they seek, for the solitary and reserved
man not seldom becomes as artificial in his
own way as the dweller in courts and kings
houses; while in small oliques artifciality in
one shape or other is pretty sure to have a
place, and little circles of people with
some special aim or principle to bind
them together are notoriously apt
to develop a oanting phraseology, an ESQ
teric msnnerism half-pious afectation, COM
pared with which the mannerism and affecta-
lion of Fop's Alley or the Belgravian rout
actually smell of Arcadia and the green fields.
For all this, however, there is rather a feeling
abroad that the true social penalties are what
are currently styled social joys. To be invited
to great number of drawing rooms is worse
fate than to be excluded from them. To be
patronized BY great host of men and women
for your merits is to have a more evil thing
befall you than if you had been cut by them
for your sins. A wise man might consent
never to be invited out to dinner, If the alter.
native were the position of a frequent diner
out. II may be said, with reason, that the
so-called pleasures which society places at the
feet of those whom it delghteth to honor are
not particularly pleasurable in themselves,
but are the outward and visible
signs of high esteem and oreditable repute
among men. The weakest part of this oonso-
Iatf 10 ba koVn al nf nh 4 Ia,