oney is the one tie which unites polished society, that it
is a fact which all must know who have access to the better circles of
even our own commercial towns, that those circles, loosely and
accidentally constructed as they are, receive with reluctance, nay,
often sternly exclude, vulgar wealth from their associations, while the
door is open to the cultivated who have nothing. The young, in
particular, seldom think much of money, while family connections, early
communications, similarity of opinions, and, most of all, of tastes,
bring sets together, and often keep them together long after the golden
band has been broken.

But men have great difficulty in comprehending things that lie beyond
their reach; and money being apparent to the senses, while refinement,
through its infinite gradations, is visible principally, and, in some
cases, exclusively to its possessors, it is not surprising that common
minds should refer a tie that, to them, would otherwise be mysterious,
to the more glittering influence, and not to the less obvious. Infinite,
indeed, are the gradations of cultivated habits; nor are as many of them
the fruits of caprice and self-indulgence as men usually suppose. There
is a common sense, nay, a certain degree of wisdom, in the laws of even
etiquette, while they are confined to equals, that bespeak the respect
of those who understand them. As for the influence of associations on
men's manners, on their exteriors, and even on their opinions, my uncle
Ro has long maintained that it is so apparent that one of his time of
life could detect the man of the world, at such a place as Saratoga
even, by an intercourse of five minutes; and what is more, that he could
tell the class in life from which he originally emerged. He tried it,
the last summer, on our return from Ravensnest, and I was amused with
his success, though he made a few mistakes, it must be admitted.

"That young man comes from the better circles, but he has never
travelled," he said, alluding to one of a group which still remained at
table; "while he who is next him _has_ travelled, but commenced badly."
This may seem a very nice distinction, but I think it is easily made.
"There are two brothers, of an excellent family in Pennsylvania," he
continued, "as one might know from the name; the eldest has travelled,
the youngest has not." This was a still harder distinction to make, but
one who knew the world as well as my uncle Ro could do it. He went o