ENGLISH RESERVE.
IT may be doubted whether the reserve in all expression of emotion so carefully cultivated in English society is really conducive to the enjoyment of society itself as a pleasure ; whether indeed it is not the true cause of the decline in con- versational power so universally lamented at the present time. If this assumption of calm indifference and of a purely intellectual interest in matters of opinion is not beneficial to the pleasure- seekers, it is certainly destructive of the moral influence of society, and deprives the people among whom it prevails of at once the most gentle and the most effectual check upon selfishness and stimulus to the cultivation of right sentiments. It also pro- vides a convenient veil to want of principle, and a congenial
atmosphere for the unconscious cultivation of that total incon- sistency between opinions and actions which foreigners call hypocrisy and Mr. Carlyle calls humbug, but which a great many English people call knowledge of the world. The fact seems to be, that opinion to be efficient among man- kind in general must be mingled with some little feeling. A man will not sacrifice his life nor even his fortune for an idea towards which he cultivates a bland indifference, however good a topic it may be for talk. And the good or bad *pinion of his compeers loses much of its importance to him if, whichever it may be, it is invariably bestowed in the same tone of voice and with the same agreeable tranquillity. If a line is drawn between matters of opinion and matters of feeling it will be only people of clear in- tellect and meditative habits who can be trusted to act up to their opinions, for only they know with certainty what their opinions are and have them constantly present to their minds. People in general will always act according to the general ten- dency of their sentiments, and to banish emotion from social in- tercourse and from the expression of opinion is to shut up the genuine man in seclusion and to eliminate from his opinions their whole reality and practical force. Where this is done, feeling and action are for every-day use and for the realities of life, opinion is for conversation and for society. A man is not then conscious of inconsistency, for he dons his opinions like his best clothes ; he does not think them any the less his own because they .are only to be used for holiday occasions, but he does not want to have them strong enough for every-day use, nor would he like in his daily work to be obliged to avoid contact with what might soil them.
When men are in the habit of freely expressing feelings as they arise there is scarcely a subject on which their true feelings will not find occasion to show themselves, and on which therefore men will not stand committed to the truth. Their opinions will then -come forth blended, as they must be whenever they are intended for practical use, with the individual character which inspired them, and with the preferences to which they give rise. There should be no check upon the expression of tastes, sentiments, antipathies, and sympathies, if we would encourage men to have opinions and care for them, for it is from the' cross-play of all these that most people's opinions must arise and be matured. If all these are to be concealed, abundant scope is given to insincerity. It is very easy for most men to conceal what they think, because they very seldom know what they think until they are -called upon to act. They are seldom sure what interpretation they are disposed practically to put upon the phrases they are in the habit of using until circumstances oblige them to decide for themselves. It is thus that many men first ask themselves what they mean by the creeds and the articles to which they have assented all their life, and would probably have gone on always assenting, when a formal act of signature or assent seems to bring words into the region of deeds. The intellect, if not predominant over the other faculties, which it certainly is not in the majority of mankind, is only one among the elements of character which decide a man's choice of conduct. We cannot judge what a man 'will do because we know what he thinks unless we also have some knowledge of his tastes, inclinations, and sentiments. But with all these a man's words need have had very little to do, accord- ing to our present social customs, which generally demand of conversation that it shall be a happy medium between all possible ways of thinking or feeling. These customs check all the frank flow of genuine character to which the slight ex- citement and stimulus of social intercourse naturally inclines men. By so doing they deprive society of its most bene- ficial effects, which should be to subject individual character to various criticism ; to show men themselves in the mirror of other people's unpremeditated judgments ; and to induce them to find reasons which will bear discussion for the sentiments and passions which make up their inner life, and must inevitably, by the con- stitution of human nature, re-act upon their outward actions. Many a man who hesitates to express in public the true motives of his conduct on a particular occasion, salves his conscience with the half-defined idea that it would be indecorous at all times to talk about his own private feelings, and that there are a great many things which a man never says. Were frankness more customary such a man would be led much oftener to ask himself why he so carefully avoids some subjects, and would probably therefore be oftener careful to govern his conduct so that it would bear free discussion.
The habit of open speech in society would probably re-act very favourably on the happiness of family life. Human nature in the
majority of cases will have room for free expansion in one direc- tion or another. An exaggerated code of self-restraint and de- ference to the supposed possible susceptibilities of others being once laid aside, many people indulge in their own homes in domi- neering and contradiction, which is as natural as it is disagreeable. Were they kept in society within only the bounds which kindness and justice impose, common sense would show them that the same rules ought to apply at home. Habits would be formed for life and not for society, nor would the temptation occasionally to break out of bounds be so great, if the range at all times permitted was greater.
The reserve as to all matters of feeling and the avoidance of differences of opinion which characterize modern society may probably be classed among those restraints which are useful merely to educate people to be independent of them. Like most artificial systems, they are indicative of a certain stage of progress, and are very useful for a time, but should by no means be looked upon as final. Perhaps even the time has already come when a great many people are sufficiently good-temperei and tolerant, suffi- ciently willing to bring their life into harmony with their outward professions, and sufficiently courageous in bearing with equanimity the obloquy which the profession of their true opinions and feel- ings may bring upon them, to be able to set the example of plain speaking and frank bearing. And the introduction of these into general society would probably be equally conducive to self- knowledge, to forbearance in family life, to honesty in public affairs, and to the diminution of that intolerable weariness which at present characterizes most forms of social intercourse.
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