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Untitled Article
husband ) , whose polite attentions are unceasing and unmeasured , and who habitually anticipates her every want . Shall we go further , and commend to all wedded people , as well as to lovers and friends , that the same degree of refinement and politeness , and obliging attention and thoughtfulness , which first rendered them so charming
to each other , be retained and cherished and cultivated even to life ' s end ? Oh ! how many friendships have been destroyed , how many fire-sides made cruel or desolate , by just that little neglect , that slight omission , that " not standing on ceremony" which served to give reality and body and force to the first misgivings and suspicions of a warm but sensitive temper ! Love , like friendship—nay , wedded love—is
" Of tender violations apt to die . ' But there are cases , doubtless , in which forms may be advantageously dispensed with . Without wishing to confound all public ceremonies with Tom-foolery , we do acknowledge the wisdom of the recent reformation of the Lord Mayor ' s show ; nor are we quite prepared to defend the indecency triennially enacted at Coventry in
honour of the noble Lady Godiva . We see nothing but evil in teaching poor children , annually , the rudiments of begging and stealing , by dressing them up as hideous u Guys" on the 5 th of November , although we are not unmindful that some parties are gainers by it . The carriages which are destroyed and the bones which are broken bv run-away horses on that day , are not few . In
short , there are many ceremonies common amongst us , which we should like to be brought to some test . Meanwhile , if they can be shown to be innocent and harmless , they ought not to be hastily abolished , even if their utility be doubtful . As every religious sect holds in great veneration and respect its own peculiar usages , and as every nation has its emblems and its ensigns , its colours and its motto , as well as its manners , customs , ceremonies , and forms ; so the
body social , in which we move and revolve , has its unwritten laws and unauthorized forms , which , as customs and as forms , are entitled to the respect of every well-regulated mind . He must be a boor indeed who would break through these decencies because , forsooth , Tie cannot see their propriety and necessity . But the fact is , he himself makes the necessity : it is to restrain the vulgar , and to check the rude , and to humanize those who have no sense of propriety , that all social forms and ceremonies have been established . If all
men were highly refined and accomplished , and high-principled and virtuous , they might be allowed , on all occasions , to embody their sentiments in any form suggested by their own sense of propriety . But the social body is unhappily a heterogeneous mass , full of wrongs and injuries , fancied or real ; and the true character of a social ceremonial is that of a graceful veil , which covers ( would that it could hide ) the oflfensiveness and indecency for which the statute-book provides no remedy . Of Symbols , as forming a special branch of our subject , we have much . to say , but no space for it at present .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
husband ) , whose polite attentions are unceasing and unmeasured , and who habitually anticipates her every want . Shall we go further , and commend to all wedded people , as well as to lovers and friends , that the same degree of refinement and politeness , and obliging attention and thoughtfulness , which first rendered them so charming
to each other , be retained and cherished and cultivated even to life ' s end ? Oh ! how many friendships have been destroyed , how many fire-sides made cruel or desolate , by just that little neglect , that slight omission , that " not standing on ceremony" which served to give reality and body and force to the first misgivings and suspicions of a warm but sensitive temper ! Love , like friendship—nay , wedded love—is
" Of tender violations apt to die . ' But there are cases , doubtless , in which forms may be advantageously dispensed with . Without wishing to confound all public ceremonies with Tom-foolery , we do acknowledge the wisdom of the recent reformation of the Lord Mayor ' s show ; nor are we quite prepared to defend the indecency triennially enacted at Coventry in
honour of the noble Lady Godiva . We see nothing but evil in teaching poor children , annually , the rudiments of begging and stealing , by dressing them up as hideous u Guys" on the 5 th of November , although we are not unmindful that some parties are gainers by it . The carriages which are destroyed and the bones which are broken bv run-away horses on that day , are not few . In
short , there are many ceremonies common amongst us , which we should like to be brought to some test . Meanwhile , if they can be shown to be innocent and harmless , they ought not to be hastily abolished , even if their utility be doubtful . As every religious sect holds in great veneration and respect its own peculiar usages , and as every nation has its emblems and its ensigns , its colours and its motto , as well as its manners , customs , ceremonies , and forms ; so the
body social , in which we move and revolve , has its unwritten laws and unauthorized forms , which , as customs and as forms , are entitled to the respect of every well-regulated mind . He must be a boor indeed who would break through these decencies because , forsooth , Tie cannot see their propriety and necessity . But the fact is , he himself makes the necessity : it is to restrain the vulgar , and to check the rude , and to humanize those who have no sense of propriety , that all social forms and ceremonies have been established . If all
men were highly refined and accomplished , and high-principled and virtuous , they might be allowed , on all occasions , to embody their sentiments in any form suggested by their own sense of propriety . But the social body is unhappily a heterogeneous mass , full of wrongs and injuries , fancied or real ; and the true character of a social ceremonial is that of a graceful veil , which covers ( would that it could hide ) the oflfensiveness and indecency for which the statute-book provides no remedy . Of Symbols , as forming a special branch of our subject , we have much . to say , but no space for it at present .