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Untitled Article
our watchword , has been more talked of than enjoyed or understood among us , unless it be the liberty of paying taxes ; that luxury we are acquainted with in its fullest extent . Our freedom , like our morals , is more apparent than real , more in sound than
substance , and may be aptly illustrated by the conduct , common , a few years ago , to our populace , who ,, while yoking themselves like cattle to the car of a popular candidate , kept roaring * Liberty —Liberty for ever ! ' all the while . Such is man , so loud in theory , so little in practice ,, so inconsistent every way !
Perhaps , ( especially since philanthropy has come into fashion , for we are a most fashionable people , that is , we have always some reigning fashion that it is a high crime and misdemeanour not to follow , ) perhaps there is no country on the face of the earth in which there is more talk of social feeling , and so little practical sociality . If not telegraphed by a previous acquaintance , that
such and such an individual is admissible , it is in vain that he appears among us with the expression of good feeling , the aspect of intelligence . Though according to all creeds , every one of which abounds in professors , he is a brother , he has as little chance of being taken by the hand , and greeted with a smile , as if he were a stone statue instead of a breathing fellow-creature .
Thus beings , in all probability gifted to attract and attach each other , are frequently in proximity ; but if the moral chemistry necessary in England to unite two parties be not present , they remain as distinct as oil and water . Our talkers of sociality , therefore , are something like the aforesaid roarers of libertysatisfied with sound .
England has the best inns and the least hospitality of any modern nation . Hospitality is now rarely heard of , save when a bulletin is issued , announcing that dinner will be on the table at such an hc > ur , and that the honour of your company is requested . Incidentally we often content ourselves with the mere verbal form ; and refinement , a sort of dull , cold delicacy , which serves as a screen for deficiency of feeling , and is a degree or two better
than affectation , has banished all that expression which gave warrant of welcome , and token of cordiality . True hospitality , like all that is real , deals in things , not words ; it does not defraud the modest school-boy of his slice of cake by failing to put it into his hand , or stint by stiff inquiry the glass that should be filled unquestioned . The warm heart brims the cup , and breaks the bread ere the cool head has thought of' popping the question . '
Our charities even may now be ranked in the list of our moral appearances ; many of them bear the form , but lack the spirit , and all are to be approached through the avenue of interest , by which the really necessitous can rarely make way ; while servility and hypocrisy are universal pauper badges , for who would relieve a wretch that could think on any point for himself , and dare to give his thoughts expression ! Our public benevolence is a sort
Untitled Article
English Morality . 785
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1833, page 785, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2626/page/53/
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