mple, but always above it.

It is not so much, however, in the mere appearances kept up, as in the
means taken to keep them up, that the fruitful cause of immorality is to
be found. A man having assumed a class status, runs all risks to keep it
up. It is thought to be a descent in the world, to abridge oneself of a
superfluity. The seeming-rich man, who drives his close carriage and
drinks champagne, will not tolerate a descent to a gig and plain beer;
and the respectable man, who keeps his gig, would think it a degradation
to have to travel afoot or in a 'bus, between his country house and his
town office. They will descend to immorality rather than descend in
apparent rank; they will yield to dishonesty rather than yield up the
mock applause and hollow respect of that big fool, "the world."

Everybody can call to mind hundreds of cases of men--"respectable
men"--who, from one extravagance have gone on to another--wantonly
squandering wealth which was not theirs--in order to keep up a worldly
reputation, and cut a figure before their admiring fellows;--all ending
in a sudden smash, a frightful downfall, an utter bankruptcy--to the
ruin, perhaps, of thousands. They have finished up with paying a
respectable dividend of sixpence in the pound! Indeed it is not too much
to say, that five-sixths of the fraud and swindling that disgrace
commercial transactions, have had their origin in the diseased morality
of "keeping up appearances."

To be "respectable," in the false sense of the word,--what is not
sacrificed? Peace, honesty, truth, virtue,--all to keep up appearances.
We must cheat, and scrub, and deceive, and defraud, that "the world" may
not see behind our mask! We must torment and enslave ourselves, because
we must extort "the world's" applause, or at least obtain "the world's"
good opinion!

How often is suicide traceable to this false sentiment! Vain men will
give up their lives, rather than their class notions of respectability.
They will cut the thread of existence, rather than cut fashionable life.
Very few suicides are committed from real want. "We never hear," says
Joel Barlow, "of a man committing suicide for want of a loaf of bread,
but it is often done for want of a coach."

Of this mean and miserable spirit of class and caste, women are the
especial victims. They are generally brought up with false notions of
life, and are taught to estimate men and things rather by their external
appearances than by t