Welsh Journals

THE SOUTH WALES .ATHEN^UM. CONDUCTED BY A COMMITTEE OF GENTLEMEN. No. 5. MAY, 1846. Price l|rf. MAN, IN RELATION TO SOCIETY. Modern Society has, by force of cir¬ cumstances (too long for us here to detail), always been divided into a thousand branches emanating from one great tree; but in no country, perhaps, more than our own, does it stand upon a footing more desirable under existing circumstances; for whilst'the highest stations lie open to the meanest man, yet there is no country where the individual claim¬ ing a new position in society has his rights more rigorously criticised, to prove whether or not his claims be equal to the advance which he de¬ mands; and public opinion is always jnst, but Just without mercy, and though for a time a man even of the highest order of intellect may remain unknown and unappreciated, the pe¬ riod will arrive when his claims based upon morality, justice, and good taste, will make its worth be felt, ^d^carry away the prize of public favour from! all competitors,' .society claiming the individual a member in his, j^tjpp- Mtion."; "Vv'jf ;/.\1' &%pjra£^ te* It is" one of "its" fundamental ,E*ws that a man shallf occupy me .same J position in society that his father did,' or does before turn, and from this po¬ sition talent alone' can rise him; talent I Well applied to the benefit of that so- I ciety whose good opinion he fries jcr win. Until fjejbasdone this, society seeing nothing in him to reward, is shy, more particularly English so¬ ciety, for reserve has always been a speck in our character at which the foreigner might fling his squib. Yet this reserve, in a qualified sense, is much to be approved, and in fact, it is a compliment paid to the party to whom such is shewn. No one is ever reserved to his inferiors in the social scale; therefore* a stranger's reserve, springs from a feeling that he meets his equal, but still has doubts as to. whether the individual possesses the qualifications necessary to sustain him in the station to which he pretends.. Reserve, to a certain extent, is alloyed with admiration, and is a* proof that the climber is at least one step up the social ladder;. but earry^jt further*, and reserve becomes the child of in-, hospitality.., ' . ., t, , .,;.,,.,:i\ ,-. What is meant by good society 1, This is a question of which every, grade in life has- formed a different idea,* from him whom the soverefgn loves io honour to that ram,'who^oe^ lfeyes that all axe eeniry tpwEomJSe, touches his* "Eat.n In, fact,* nominal* considers that |o be'gdod^ societyjbujfcj whicE^mthe^Scale above. J^in| &^ alt beneath is without,the' mleSUSjiftj l *timrt, * »iJt.iMJi. *-l..i..- it filing iHtsr^gzH*. Now let us analyze the word, and, see what {«w(j! mean by good society^ Society' means |he. I^HoIe bbdyofman^j kind which are in * j*civilized^ ,'ptate>i and nave,^fioi'"been guilty of habite and crimes* which' reduce the man to a lower state than barbarism. Good society consists of those who by their