The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-07-08
The Future or Society.

IL has CHANGED to the writer to read
recently a number of memoirs, biogra-
Dhies, and sketches, all intended to
describe society" in it's technical sense
the upper society, that is, of great
capitals, the large group of more or
less idle persons which in every Euro
pean country has drawn together round
the center of affairs, be it court, par
lament, or conspicuous 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 attention
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 demonstrable TdisOn deter, is
apparently indestructible, or wonder
ing whether, if understandable, as time
advances, grows worse or better. The
closer you study European history the
more certain are you to find
limited yet large circle which
surrounds the center of power,
which claims for itself most of the
enjoyments of life and secures them,
which the millions around regard with
admiration, or envy, occasionally saw
age hatred, but which itself does little
or nothing to draw to itself that excep-
tional attention. 1t simply is, and con-
tinues TO be, floating at the top, APP
parently without effort, and though
rapidly fluctuating in its components,
still marked by the presence OF its con-
stituents, such as the great families,
which hardly change. 1t is always frivo-
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 around Louis XIV, or
Napoleon LII. /; as marked in the time
of Charles H., as of Queen Victoria
and allowing the difference of manners,
always showing the same characteristics.
All within it are seeking distraction /;
all are self-willed and in way lawless,
yet without independence; and all, as
a body, seek money.
The satirists of to-day who describe
Berlin, Vienna, Paris and London, all
notice the money greed of society, y
the intrusion into it because they bring
money of vulgar Jews, the faint of
jobbing which sticks TO some of its real
and most of its Fictitious eminencies
but all that is very old. Legacy-hunt-
ing was q trade with the Roman aris-
tocracy; society in the middle ages
hungered for grants of land, hei.esses'
appanages, and court pensions; the
grand society of Louis XIV
courted farmers general as the
little society of NJ. Grevy courts
German and Levautine Jews, and con-
tracts were competed for by courtiers
two hundred years ago, as "conces-
sions" and early information" are now.
There Is no change in objects, and as
to methods there is probably an i'm
proyement Cruelty has been struck
out of the list of permissible detrac-
tions; sexual vice, if still a motive
power, is far less cynically coarse; lux
ury has got itself varnish of refine
ment from art. which is sometimes gen.
uine; and idleness, though still dom
inant, is broken by quantity of thin
but harmless intellectual interests.
Whatever the change, however, "soci-
ETY." has lasted on. 1t has survived all
political events. 1t emerged smiling,
interesting, and corrupt from the cata-
clysm of the French Revolution, which
for one short hour did completely sub
merge it; it remains unaffected by the
slow decay of the prestige of birth; and
we see no sign that it is seriously
threatened by the progress of democ-
racy. National poverty, one would
think, would weaken it; but it never
was more conspicuous than under the
Directory, when nobody had anything /;
and it was rampant in Berlin when,
after the French invasion, fortunes
were not, and 200 year was salary
coveted by great persons.
Will society" ever get better? His
tory does not suggest hope, for even
religious revivals have only touched it
for a moment; misfortunes have never
sobered it, as witness the history of the
French emigres and mobiles, and the
progress of intelligence has made but
It's amusements little more varied.
Indeed, if we were TO calculate closely,
a probability would become visible that
society" might grow little worse. 1t
attracts wealth more than ever. 1t
grows more skeptical than it did. 1t is
becoming cynical 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 democ-
racy a new and evil strength. The
Spectator.
The Influence of Fiction.