, 1873-05-25
CUSTOM AND TRADITION.


balls and dinner-parties because you did not
possess such thing az drass-toat. Tho reason
struck me ..as being scarcely valid one, con-
sidering the rather high scale OF e1pendi-
ture adopted in the paternal mansion.
It seemed clcar that tho eldest son Of
family which lived nfter the Ibe1nl fashion Of
Yorkshire country gentlemen could afford him
self drese-coat, if he liked. Then I wondered
whether you disliked dress-coats from belief
thai they were unbecoming to your person; but
q very little observation Of your character quite
satisfactorily convinced me that, whatever might
be; your weaknesses (for everybody has some
weaknesses), anxiety about personal appearance
YVES not one Of them.
The truth is, that you secretly enjoy this
little piecs OF disobelience to custom, and all
tho disabilities which result from it. This
little rebellion is connected with larger re-
be1ion, and it is agreeable to you to demonstrate
the unreasonab1eness Of society by mourning
very severe penalty for very tritling onenae.
You are always dressed decently, you Offend
against no moral rule, you hare cultivated your
mind by study and reflection, and it rather
pleases you to think that q young gentleman so
well qualified for society in everything of real
Importance should be excluded from it because
ho has not purchased q permission from his
tailor.
The penalties imposed by society for tho in
fraction Of very triaing details OF custom arc
often, as it seems, out Of an proportion to tho
offense but 30 are the penalties OF Nature.
Only three days before the date Of this letter, IN
intimate friend Of mino was coming home from
q days shooting. Els nephew, fine young
man in the full enjoyment Of existence, was
walking ten PAGES in advance. A covey Of par
tgidges suddenly cross the road; my friend, in
shouldering his gun, touches the trigger Just
second toe soon. and lls ms nepnsw: s;u HG"l ti'l
will be the punishment OF that very triaing piece
Of carelessness! NY poor friend has passed, in
the space Of d single instant, from joyous LIE
to life that is permanently and irremodlably
saddened. It is as if he had left the summer
sunshine to enter. gloomy dungeon and
what For having touched trig-
ger, without evil intention, 9 little too preclp-
ftately. 1t seems harder ntil for the victim,
who is sent out Of the world in the bloom Of
nerfect manhood because his uncle was not
quite 60 cool us he ought to have been. Again,
not far from where live thifty-t1Ve men were
killed last week III coa1-pitfronl an explosion OF
tlro-damp. One Of them had struck : luclfer to
light his pipe; for doing this IN place where
he ought not to have done it. the man suffers
the penalty of death, and thirty-four others with
him. The fact is simply that Nature uiu be
obeyed, and makes no attempt to proportion
punishments to offenses indeed, what in our
human way We call punishments arc not punish
mcnts, but simple consequences. So it is with
the great social penalties. Society to1! DC ooeyed;
if you refuse obedience you must take the con-
sequences. Society has only one law. and that
is custom. Even religion itself is socially
Nature does not desire that thirty-dVe men
should be destroyed because one could not re-
sist the temptation OF pipe but fredamp is
highly infammable, and the explosion is ein-
H. .n,n& h.
PIE consequence. Society does not desire TO e.
dress but the dress is customary, and your ex-
clusion is merely consequence Of your non
conformity Tho view Of society goes no fur
ther in this than the artistic conception mot
very de!icately artistic, perhaps) t. that s.it it.
regularly placed between ladies round
dinner-:ab1e than men in gray coats or brown
coats. The uniformity OF costume appears to
represent uniformity OF sentiment, and to IN
What society really cares for is harmony;
what it dislikes is dissent and non-conformity.
Il wants pence in the dining-room, peace IN
the, drawing groom, peace everywhere IN its
your shooting-coat, which WAS in tune upon
the moors, but is dissonance among ladies
in full dress. Do you not perceive that fuR-
tian and velveteen, which we're natural among
game-keopers, arc not so natural on gilded
chairs, covered with silk, with lace, and dia-
monds, ut distance OF feet? You don't per-
ceive it? Very we'll; society does not argue the
point with you, but only excludes you.
1t has been said that IN the life OF every in
te1lcctual man there comes time when he
questions custom at all points, This seems to
be provision Of Nature for the reform and
progress OF custom itself, which, without such
Questioning would remain absolutely stationary
and irTeslstibly despotic. Your rebels against
the established custom have your place in
the great work Of progressive civilization.
Without you, Western Europe would have
been a second China. Il is to the con-
tinual rebellion Of such peraons aB yourself that
we owe whatever progress has been accomplished
since the times Of our remotest forefathers
There have been rebels always, and tho rebels
have not been, generally speaking, the most
stupid part of the nation.
But what is the use of wasting this beneficial
power Of rebellion Oh matters too trivial to bo
worth attention Does it hurt your Conscience
to appear in . dress-coat? Certainly not, and
you would be Us good-loohng in if as you are in
your relvcteen shooting jacket with the pointers
on tho bronze buttons. Let us conform IN
these trivial matters, which nobody except q
tailor ought to consider worth moments atten-
tion in order to rcservo strength for the pro-
lection of intellectual liberty Lot society arrange
your dress for you tit will save you infinite
trouble), but never permit it to stle the express
sion Of your thought. You find it convenient,
because you are timid, to exclude yourself from
the world by refusing to weer it's costume; but
bolier man would lot the tailor do his worst,
and then go into the world and courageously de-
fend there the persons and CAUSES that are NUS
understood and alanderously misrepresented,
The fables Of spsnser are fables only in form form,
armed in the panoply Of coat-tail, dress waist
coat, snd manly moral courage, to do battle
ACROSS the dinner'tab1e and in the drawing-room
for those who have none to defend them.
It is unphilosoEhical to set, ourselves obsti-
nately against custom in the mass, for it null
tip1iee the poWGr Of men by settling use
less discussion and clearing the ground for
our best and most prolific activity. The busi-
ness Of the world could not be carried forward
one day without most complex code Of Gus
toms; and law itself is little more than custom
slightly improved upon BY men rejecting to
gether at their leisure, and reduced to codes and
systems. We ought to think Of custom as B.
most precious legacy Of the past, saving uB in
finite perplerity, yet not as an infalliblo rule.
The most intelligent community would be con-
geryative in it's habits, yet not obstinately con-
ser7atiye, but willing to hear and adopt tho
suggestions Of advancing, reason, Tho great
duty Of the intellectual class, and ite especial
function, is to confirm what is reasonable in the
customs that have been handed down to us, and
~+J%~ o{ or3a inns