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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
that can be done is to look forward to the future . The opening paragraphs are specimens of a sound judgment and correct appreciation of the every day affairs of the world : — ' That sound , moral , and prudential maxims are the best regulators of our habits and affections , must be obvious to every reflecting mind , both in the greater and minor concerns of life . But , in proportion to
their utility , so much is the danger of adopting a vicious "maxim without a thorough examination , although it may present itself under the garb of long usage or fashion . To take , for instance , the well-known adage— " One must do as other people do ;"—try it by every test of experience or common sense , and a more universal or pernicious guide in our principles or conduct cannot be found in the long catalogue of human delusions . It is applicable chiefly to the appearance we make
in the eyes of the world , in our dress , our establishments , and in those observances of fashion and etiquette which the exclusives so well know how to assume , as their sole and arbitrary test of respectability and rank . There are few persons who are sufficiently methodical in the arrangement of their affairs , to know , with any thing like accuracy , what may be their income or their expenditure . And it is on this principle utterly impossible they should be able to form an adequate opinion concerning
the property of their neighbours . We may witness their profusion or their parsimony , but cannot judge of their prudence . Taking , then , as the standard of our conduct the example of others , I am justified in saying —my neighbour keeps a horse and gig , and I must do the same . Another is perpetually cramming hia house with a fashionable mob , and one must conform to such a friendly and hospitable custom . Another sends his children to a genteel school , where fifty pounds a year for each
is an average expense , and you know we are bound by every principle of duty and affection to give them the best of educations . And where is this indiscriminating nonsense to stop ? The misfortune lies herethat we are never allowed to look below our level for an example , but always above it ; and if we do not run headlong to ruin with our eyes open , it is only because we wilfully shut them that we may not see the
consequences . * One of the most pernicious and demoralizing practices of modern refinement , is that of the " large party " system . Rousseau ( with all his aberrations of mind ) said , * ' I had rather have my house too small for a day , than too large for a twelvemonth . " Fashion exactly reverses this most rational maxim , and thus the mischief begins in a large dwelling and suitable accommodations . The next object is , not the selection
of acquaintance , similar in taste , or of long standing in our esteem * or , as far as we can judge , in nearly equal pecuniary circumstances , but to make up a certain number , " belter skelter , " as chance or caprice may present them to our recollection . Of these " dear friends , "—say from fifty to a hundred—it is a fair presumption that one-third may be " pretty well to do , " another third just ' from hand to mouth" in their affairs ,
and the remainder cither in a state of insolvency , or closely bordering upon it . And yet they must all meet upon terms of perfect equality , fashionable and elegant in appearance , and all of them on the " must do " system—they are bound by the imperative rule—they mupt make suitable returns , by having occasionally such respectable parties at their own homes . And thua the man of from one to three hundred a year is
Untitled Article
488 Housebuilding an d ffousekeep i ? ig .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 488, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/28/
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