rove themselves shallow-thoughted and
cold-hearted.

It is true, that some who shun drawing-rooms do so from inability to
bear the restraints prescribed by a genuine refinement, and that they
would be greatly improved by being kept under these restraints. But it
is not less true that, by adding to the legitimate restraints, which are
based on convenience and a regard for others, a host of factitious
restraints based only on convention, the refining discipline, which
would else have been borne with benefit, is rendered unbearable, and so
misses its end. Excess of government invariably defeats itself by
driving away those to be governed. And if over all who desert its
entertainments in disgust either at their emptiness or their formality,
society thus loses its salutary influence--if such not only fail to
receive that moral culture which the company of ladies, when rationally
regulated, would give them, but, in default of other relaxation, are
driven into habits and companionships which often end in gambling and
drunkenness; must we not say that here, too, is an evil not to be passed
over as insignificant?

Then consider what a blighting effect these multitudinous preparations
and ceremonies have upon the pleasures they profess to subserve. Who, on
calling to mind the occasions of his highest social enjoyments, does not
find them to have been wholly informal, perhaps impromptu? How
delightful a picnic of friends, who forget all observances save those
dictated by good nature! How pleasant the little unpretended gatherings
of book-societies, and the like; or those purely accidental meetings of
a few people well known to each other! Then, indeed, we may see that "a
man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." Cheeks flush, and eyes
sparkle. The witty grow brilliant, and even the dull are excited into
saying good things. There is an overflow of topics; and the right
thought, and the right words to put it in, spring up unsought. Grave
alternates with gay: now serious converse, and now jokes, anecdotes, and
playful raillery. Every one's best nature is shown, every one's best
feelings are in pleasurable activity; and, for the time, life seems well
worth having.

Go now and dress for some half-past eight dinner, or some ten o'clock
"at home;" and present yourself in spotless attire, with every hair
arranged to perfection. How great the difference! The enjoyment seems in
the inverse ratio of the preparation. These figures, go