"
There needs also the exercise of no small degree of moral courage
to resist the corrupting influences of what is called "Society."
Although "Mrs. Grundy" may be a very vulgar and commonplace
personage, her influence is nevertheless prodigious. Most men,
but especially women, are the moral slaves of the class or caste
to which they belong. There is a sort of unconscious conspiracy
existing amongst them against each other's individuality. Each
circle and section, each rank and class, has its respective
customs and observances, to which conformity is required at the
risk of being tabooed. Some are immured within a bastile of
fashion, others of custom, others of opinion; and few there are
who have the courage to think outside their sect, to act outside
their party, and to step out into the free air of individual
thought and action. We dress, and eat, and follow fashion, though
it may be at the risk of debt, ruin, and misery; living not so
much according to our means, as according to the superstitious
observances of our class. Though we may speak contemptuously
of the Indians who flatten their heads, and of the Chinese
who cramp their toes, we have only to look at the deformities
of fashion amongst ourselves, to see that the reign of
"Mrs. Grundy" is universal.
But moral cowardice is exhibited quite as much in public as in
private life. Snobbism is not confined to the toadying of the
rich, but is quite as often displayed in the toadying of the poor.
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