ome degree of reality to produce the appearance, but not a
substantial reality. Gilding is the perfect type of what Society
requires. A certain quantity of gold is necessary for the work of the
gilder, but a very small quantity, and skill in applying the metal so as
to cover a large surface, is of greater consequence than the weight of
the metal itself. The mind of a fashionable person is a carefully gilded
mind.

Consider fashionable education. Society imperatively requires an outside
knowledge of many things; not permitting the frank confession of
ignorance, whilst it is yet satisfied with a degree of knowledge
differing only from avowed ignorance in permitting you to be less
sincere. All young ladies, whether gifted by nature with any musical
talent or not, are compelled to say that they have learned to play upon
the piano; all young gentlemen are compelled to affect to know Latin. In
the same way the public opinion of Society compels its members to
pretend to know and appreciate the masterpieces of literature and art.
There is, in truth, so much compulsion of this kind that it is not easy
to ascertain what people do really know and care about until they admit
you into their confidence.

The inevitable effect of these affectations is to diminish the value, in
Society, of genuine knowledge and accomplishment of all kinds. I know a
man who is a Latin scholar; he is one of the few moderns who have really
learned Latin; but in fashionable society this brings him no
distinction, because we are all supposed to know Latin, and the true
scholar, when he appears, cannot be distinguished from the multitude of
fashionable pretenders. I know another man who can draw; there are not
many men, even amongst artists, who can draw soundly; yet in fashionable
society he does not get the serious sort of respect which he deserves,
because fashionable people believe that drawing is an accomplishment
generally attainable by young ladies and communicable by governesses. I
have no wish to insinuate that Society is wrong, in requiring a certain
pretence to education in various subjects, and a certain affectation of
interest in masterpieces, for these pretences and affectations do serve
to deliver it from the darkness of a quite absolute ignorance. A society
of fashionable people who think it necessary to be able to talk
superficially about the labors of men really belonging to the
intellectual class, is always sure to be much better informed