we are afraid of standing alone, or
of thinking and acting for ourselves. Conventionalism rules all. We fear
stepping out into the free air of independent thought and action. We
refuse to plant ourselves upon our instincts, and to vindicate our
spiritual freedom. We are content to bear others' fruit, not our own.

In private affairs, the same spirit is alike deleterious. We live as
society directs, each according to the standard of our class. We have a
superstitious reverence for custom. We dress, and eat, and live, in
conformity with the Grundy law. So long as we do this, we are
"respectable," according to class notions. Thus many rush open-eyed upon
misery, for no better excuse than a foolish fear of "the world." They
are afraid of "what others will say of them;" and, in nine cases out of
ten, those who might probably raise the voice of censure, are not the
wise or the far-seeing, but much oftener the foolish, the vain, and the
short-sighted.

Sir William Temple has said, that "a restlessness in men's minds to be
something that they are not, and to have something that they have not,
is the root of all immorality." The statement is strictly correct. It
has been attested by universal experience.

Keeping up appearances is one of the greatest social evils of the age.
There is a general effort, more particularly amongst the middle and
upper classes, at seeming to be something that they are not. They put on
appearances, live a life of sham, and endeavour to look something
superior to what they really are.

"Respectability" is one of the chief aims. Respectability, regarded in
its true sense, is a desirable thing. To be respected, on right grounds,
is an object which every man and woman is justified in obtaining. But
modern respectability consists of external appearances. It means wearing
fine clothes, dwelling in fine houses, and living in fine style. It
looks to the outside,--to sound, show, externals. It listens to the
chink of gold in the pocket. Moral worth or goodness forms no part of
modern respectability. A man in these days may be perfectly
"respectable," and yet altogether despicable.

This false and demoralizing habit arises from the overweening estimate
which is formed of two things, well enough in their place,--rank and
wealth. Everybody struggles to rise into some superior class. The spirit
of caste is found as keenly at work among the humblest as among the
highest ranks. At Birmingham, there was a club