The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-08-18
THE VICES OF SOCIETY,
Indiscriminate Condemnation May Do
 More Harm Than Good.

Indiscriminate Condemnation May Do
 More Harm Than Good.
 During the last few months Fr Ber- nard Vaughn has been edifying large congregations with his denunciations of fashionable sins. We do not question the integrity of his purpose, but we are far from certain about the wisdom of his methods He denounces what he calls the smart set" for their goddess ness, their luxury, their gambling. No doubt it is partly true in detail; chap ter and verse may eonceivably be found for every statement; and yet the result is, to our mind, far from true, It takes two people to make a truth--one to preacher is too often prone to forget mind as to what impression he desires to make, but we venture to say that it Is a very different impression which is left upon his hearers and upon the larger public which reads the reports nert day in the half-penny papers. To generalize about society Is like dog- matizing about a nWbion; and there can never be more than a suspicion of truth in the generalizati ton. In it's proper
 ;r tn 1aroriln fhah large body of people distinguished by birth, Intellect or means who can afford to live a life undistracted by petty cares. Tn this broad sense it denotes the governing class, the men and wo' men who in every department of life set the standards and perform the higher tasks. At one period in our his tory 1t had narrow basis, determined mainly by birth, but nowadays the terms of admission to it's portals are generously conceived. There was never a time when capacity was more will ingly welcomed, whether it show itself in the form of wealth or intellect.
 Obviously in so large a class there
 
 will naturally draw into set by them- selves. People who have wealth and position without brains or character to correspond, will spend their days in the idle pursuit of pleasure. There are ne r-do-weels in society, as there are ne'er-do-weels among shopkeepers and dock lajborers; only their position ad. vertises their worthlessness and sets them on a pedestal for men to gape at. We are far from denying the vice and stiffness of these people, but we main tain that they are very little part of society and that their influence Is neg ligible. They are admired and followed only by the very young or the very foolish. To identify them with society as the pulpit moralist is wont to do, i' not only unfair and untrue, but a dan. ger to the existence of any wholesome public opinion. It is Burkes metaphor over again of the noisy grasshopperE and placid oxen, Remember that this identification will be made by Fr Vaughan's hearers and readers even ii it is not countenanced by the words oi the preacher himself The spread oi cheap, newspapers has given the pub lie a morbid curiousity about the doings of the richer classes. The fiction whicf they read draws a sufficiently lurit picture, and the cheap scandal printed everywhere heightens the colors When the pulpit adds it's testimony their suspicion is confirmed, and tn, wicked baronet" of melodrama be comes the type of our ruling classes It Is idle to point out that he is an ex ception. When you condemn society il