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Untitled Article
maajaer , not in themselves offensive , would be delightedly or indulgently met . The best manners are those which are most natural ; that is , momt consistent with individual character and current feeling , and which are thence easy and unpremeditated—were such manners general , we should have more variety and more sincerity in
society . The argument which holds against the Quaker-style of dress —namely , that " nature does not advocate a drab-coloured world / ' holds equally against the manner of English " supreme
ban ton . " Softness , gentleness , and placidity are charms ; but so are earnestness , energy , and all the varieties of emotion , which , did people feel , would arise in ordinary social intercourse . The deeper feelings belong to solitude , or scenes in which there are few actors and rarely many spectators .
We have only to imagine the silly rules and ceremonies which we impose upon each other , as imposed upon those creatures who have little or no secondary nature , which term , perhaps , best de-$ lgjoates what we mean by art . All elements are yielded by primary nature , the combination or regulation of those elements is secondary nature , or art . How pitiable that , in the latter , man loses sight of the beautiful and harmonious principles which appear in the first . Strangely would the lark feel if compelled
to pitch her voice in the same key with " some moping owl , " which " doth to the moon complain ; " not a little might the nightingale be nettled if told to copv the croakings of some toad
crouching in aristocratic frigidity in his neighbourhood ; nor would the pretty spotted frog like to have her erratic movements regulated by the tortoise , however , in aidermanic gravity and obesity , it might hold itself a pattern to the whole creation . In Planner , as in conversation , few are more agreeable , though , perhaps , less fashionable , than those who are by turns " the
grave , the gay , the witty , the severe , " provided that all these moods are regulated by the thermometer of good sense and good feeling , which include rarely , if ever , fever heat , or the freezing point . It was remarked to me the other day , by one who remembers many by-gone years , and preserves tne intelligence which can compare the past and the present , that when he recalls the state of manners and opinion some years since , it is quite startling to meet , as you now do , Members of Parliament and East India Directors jumbled indiscriminately with the crowd of an omnibus . Good speed to the omnibus and to all else that assists to break down the barriers which have been impiously find unwisely erected between man and man . Hail to him who is the first to taro the five-barred gate of silly ceremony and selfish exclusive *
Untitled Article
404 Exclustveness .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1836, page 494, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2660/page/34/
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