he tone of the piano-forte is bad, his father may have made it--if
we complain of the uncertainty of the banking interest, his uncle may
have been gazetted last week. I name no exaggerated instances; on the
contrary, I refer these general remarks to particular individuals, whom
all of us have probably met. Thus, you see, that a variety of topics is
prescribed in a mixed company, because some one or other of them will be
certain to offend."

Perceiving that we listened to him with attention, Mr. Clarendon
continued--"Nor is this more than a minor objection to the great mixture
prevalent amongst us: a more important one may be found in the
universal imitation it produces. The influx of common persons being once
permitted, certain sets recede, as it were, from the contamination, and
contract into very diminished coteries. Living familiarly solely amongst
themselves, however they may be forced into visiting promiscuously, they
imbibe certain manners, certain peculiarities in mode and words--even
in an accent or a pronunciation, which are confined to themselves;
and whatever differs from these little eccentricities, they are apt to
condemn as vulgar and suburban. Now, the fastidiousness of these
sets making them difficult of intimate access, even to many of their
superiors in actual rank, those very superiors, by a natural feeling in
human nature, of prizing what is rare, even if it is worthless, are the
first to solicit their acquaintance; and, as a sign that they enjoy it,
to imitate those peculiarities which are the especial hieroglyphics of
this sacred few. The lower grades catch the contagion, and imitate those
they imagine most likely to know the proprietes of the mode; and thus
manners, unnatural to all, are transmitted second-hand, third-hand,
fourth-hand, till they are ultimately filtered into something worse
than no manners at all. Hence, you perceive all people timid, stiff,
unnatural, and ill at ease; they are dressed up in a garb which does not
fit them, to which they have never been accustomed, and are as little at
home as the wild Indian in the boots and garments of the more civilized
European."

"And hence," said I, "springs that universal vulgarity of idea, as well
as manner, which pervades all society--for nothing is so plebeian as
imitation."

"A very evident truism!" said Clarendon--"what I lament most, is the
injudicious method certain persons took to change this order of things,
and diminish the desa