The Cecil Whig., 1886-05-29
SOCIETY.
Its Faults and Its Future.

Gently number of memoirs, biograph
les and sketches, all intended to describe
society" in its technical sense, the -.
per society, that is, of great. &C. -'"i'' 'no
| large group of more q" '~'e i"io poi'ons
which in eya.g european country has
drawn +~,oJher round the centre of af-
f.:.s, be it Court, Parliament or conspicu-
is person, has called itself and thought
itself 'the world" has given laws to
manners and greatly influenced morals
and in all ages has attracted to itself for
no obvious reason an exceptional atten-
ton and regard. 1t is not an interesting
study except for an object and one is
soon startled to see how little variety it
presents; but it is impossible to read such
accounts without noticing that society"
in its limited sense though without de-
monstrable ratson d'etre is apparently in.
destructible, or wondering whether if
indestructible it will as time advances
grow worse or better. The closer you
study European history the more certain
are you to find a limited yet large circle
which surrounds the centre of power,
which claims for itself most of the enjoy
ments of life and secures them which the
millions around regard with admiration
or envy or occasioningly savage hatred,
but which itself does little or nothing to
draw to itself that exceptional attention.
1t simply is, and continues to be, floating
at the top, apparently without effort, and
though rapidly fluctuatlng in its compo-
nents, still marked by the presence of
constituents such as the great families
which hardly change. 1t is always frivu-
lous, always attentive to ceremony, al
ways more or less vicious and always in
want of fresh supplies of cash which it
wastes profusely; yet it does not pass
away. You find it as powerful round
Charles the Bold, or Philip H., or Henri
Quatre, as round Louis Nv, or Napo-
leon H., as marked in the time of
Charles II. as of Queen Victoria, and, al
lowing for differences of manners, always
with the same characteristics. All within
it are seeking distraction; all are self
willed and in way lawless. yet without
independence; and all, as body, seek
money. The satrsts of today who de-
scribe Berlin, Vienna, Paris and London
all notice the money greed of ''society,"
the intrusion into it because they bring
moLey of vulgar Jews, the taint of job
bing which sticks to some of its real and
most of it's Fictitious eminences; but all
that is very old. Legacy hunting was
trade with the Roman aristocracy; So
ciety in the Middle Ages hungered for
grants of land, heiresses, appanges and
Court pensions; the grand society of
Louis NV. courted Farmers general as
the little society of NJ Grevy courts Ger
man and Levantine Jews; and contracts
were competed for by courtiers two hun
died years ago as, concession" and
'early information" are now. There is
no change in objects, and as to methods,
there is probably an improvement. Cru
SlUy DCCH StluCh OuU VI GuC ilSU vi pCl-
missible distractions; sexual vice, if still
a motiYe power, is far less cynically
coarse; luxury has got itself varnish
of refinement from art, which is some
times genuine; and idleness, though still
dormant, is broken by a quantity of thin
but harmless intellectualinte What
ever the change, however, Society has
lasted on. 1t has survived all political
events. 1t emerged smiling, interesting
| and corrupt from the cataclysim of the
| French Revolution, which for one short
hour did completely submerge it; it re-
mains unaffected by the slow decay of
the prestige of birth; and we see no sign
that it is seriously threatened by the
progress of democracy. National power
| ty, one would think, weaken it; but it
never was more conspicuous than under
the Directory, when nobody had any,
thing; and it was rampant in Ber-
! lin when, after the French invasion,
fortunes were not, and e100 year was a
salary coveted by great persons.
Will society ever get better? His
tory does not suggest hope, for even re-
ligious revivals haye only touched it for
moment; misfortunes have never
sobered it, as witness the history of the
French dmigres princes and mobiles; and
the progress of intelligence has but made
| &c ;a1 In
deed, if we were to calulate closely, a
probability would become visible that
''society" might grow little worse. 1t
attracts wealth more than ever. 1t grows
more sceptical than it did. 1t is becom.
ing cyncical under the microscope to
which it is exposed, its members feeling
that if they are to enjoy at all they must
disregard opinion; and it is deriving from
the progress of democracy new and
evil strength. That progress ostracizes
hundreds who would, but for it, seek
public careers; and they, with theil
strength for work, seclude themselves il
society, retiring, as it were, from tue be-
fouled arena to the drawing room, t6
which they bring the inauguration Of
their capacities, and new contempt fol
the inferior crowd outside. When, as in
some circles in France, in the best Cir
cles in America, aud, alas in one or two
enlarging circles in England, it has be
come good form to be of society, and baG
form to be of politics, "society" gains
for itself a temporary refrigeration. II
has absorbed men and women too gooG
for it, and wakes fat on wasted brains
There should be deterioration in those
circumstances of the hour, in the
cosmopolitan character which the
great life assumes-your cosmopolitan
usually learning all vices, because re-
leased from the pressure of all nationa
opinions-and in the growing pressure OF
pessimistic thought, the thought which
doubts whether in a world like this the
individual can do anything worth doing
except ransack earth for danties, curious
and beautiful objects, or inquire with q
curiosity which lasts five minutes
whether peep outside the world is in
deed possibility. There will doubtless
be antiseptic palliatlves found-war, fol
example, has repeatedly been one, anG
occasionally, in monarchial countries
Court influences-but for those who re-
ject mere anticipations and try to calcu
late, the signs are by no means hopeful