Year: 1873

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IRRET.sTF.vG VIRTUES.


About the utility and the advantages of
punctuality there can be no manner of
doubt. Time is a commodity as strictly
limited in quantity as coal itsef-at least
as far as each individual Is concerned-and
whatever tends, as punctuality does, to
economize time, is, of course, good thing.
But IL is good only as a means 10 an end,
not as an end itself, and there are some peo-
pie who do not cultivate punctuality for
the saving Of time, but rather devote their
time to the cultivation of punctuality. In
fact, ii may be observed that large pro-
portion of people eminent in the practice
of this minor virtue are people who have
more time on their hands than they know
what to do with; who, when they have
punctually swallowed their breakfasts,
have nothing on earth to occupy their
minds with except watching for the ap-
proach of the luncheon-hour. To such
people, any event which breaks the monot-
ony of the day is an important epoch, just
as 10 travellers in the desert the merest
sand -hillock in the distance is all interest
ing feature in the landscape. 1t is posi-
tive godsend to them. 1t gives them some
thing to do and something to think of-or,
perhaps it would be more correct to say,
exctes certain mental motion which may
be considered kind of rudimentary form
of thinking. And yet, forsooth, these peo-
pie must give themselves prodigious airs
of virtue, and crow over all creation, be-
cause they never miss train, fail in an ap-
pointment, or are late for anything, as if
this precious punctuality of theirs were ac-
quired by severe self-denial, and practiced
solely from a sense of duty.


Punctuality. is by no means the only mi
nor virtue which can be irritating in this
way. That particular variety of the virtue
of orderlness which women glorify un-
der the name of "tidness" is a most ex-
cellent thing in its way, "a sweet virtue,
look you y as Launce says, when cultivat-
ed in moderation; but who has not groan-
ed under its oppressiveness in the house of
the unco tidy? Who does not know the
house where the maxim, "a place for ev-
erything, and everything in its place y
10 81 iIBluiy COusllutu, tldl ~ SctIllS COu-
trary to the relgio loci to make use of any
thing; where books are not meant to be
read, but to radiate symmetrically from the
center of the drawing-room table; where
when you take a chair you cannot help feel
ing that in some degree you take a liberty
also; where the end and purpose Of every
article is apparently to wear a cover of some
sort, and the making of covers for things
is the main occupation of the females of
the family? In their full perfection per-
haps such houses are only to be found
among the curiosties Of provincial middle
class life. The great worshippers of tidi-
ness, as an end in itself, are people like
George Eliots Dodsons and Tullivers-
people with whom it is an article of relig-
ion to have best things" reserved for some
dimly contemplated occasion in the remote
future. But the Dodson and Tulliver calf
Der of mind is not confined 10 any one stra-
tum or formation in the social system. 1t
is simply variety of the one-deaed mind,
an order of mind by no means sparsely
distributed, and apt TO be irritating if you
are brought into too close contact with it.
The unicorn is very well in heraldry, where
he has one side of shield all TO himself,
but he must have been an abominabe nui-
sance in the ark with that obtrusve horn
of his. In much the same way one-ideaed
people are nuisances in society. They cam
not,keep their one idea out of their neigh
bors' eyes and ribs, and they are by no
means least exasperdting when they and
their idea are of dull, commonplace ma
ture, as is the case with those who make a
minor virtue of tidiness. With the same
sort of people, cleanliness it apt to degen-
crate into minor virtue, and as minor
virtue It is all the more aggravating, be-
cause there is no saying anything against
it. Except in the case of old armor and
beggars, and one or two other objects of
speculative interest, il is impossible TO have
too much cleanliness, and any one assum.
ing and parading ii as a virtue holds per-
fectly unassailable position. This is what
makes it such iavorite with women, more
especially with those who pride themselves
on keeping the opposite sex in subjection.
For making man thoroughly uncomforta-
BILE. and reducing him to wholesome
sense of his fecbleness and inferiority,
there is nothing femininein ingenuity has dis
covered more effective than that institution
which takes the form Of general cleaning,
scrubbing, and putting of things to rights.
London Saturday RevieiO.