MRS GRUNDY.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 5, 5 December 1877, Page 2

MRS GRUNDY.

If ever virtuous nod valuable female was ungratefully rewarded by this ungrateful world it is she. Somewhere or other, whether as a sweet little, cherub aloft or a viewless messenger yf air among us web now not — "perhaps no man ever shall know " — she takes care of us, al[ and individually, she watches oner our cradle 3, she instigates our funerals, she assists us in choosing our spouses, cur hats, our houses, our friends, our. religion, our dinners, she inspic-es. many and controls all of our Acts of l\irliament, she breathes her afflitus into our art, she prompts nur literature. o,ur pulpit elo~. (juenee, our evening party ballads o.f the affection*. What should we da without \ her? Fancy having in settle aM the details of our lives ourselves— r. which Quarter of the town to livo in, wlyit &ort of a house to have, whafc furniture, how nanny servants, what o'clw-lc to dinoat, at which part of the dinner to. have tho fssU. $ancy having to End out our own wishes, to create our own tastes, to pro noun d our o,w.n code of social morals* Nina-tenths of us would have o,ur minds like the old Sresco of die maa clad in, a pain of shears* meditating into wh,at fashion he would cut the provision of cloths and silks spread ayowd him far Ins. coTerine, and wouldj wai^ in hesitating bewilderment unpro* vided, with idea,s a,fc all ;• and the remaining teath woidild ii?e in a state of perpetual) variation and e^peyimenr^and would be like independent hermits in, a too crowded desert, each aij, offence to all th,s others, an,d a,U the others in the way of each.. There, would be i\o certajnty abo,ut anything. One. lady nouM be foa,nd at fam,i ly prayers a,t what we. thought whs. her hpw f° r iioj.'nin,g calls, a,nd scandal ; one, would, summon us to attend her " at home "' at 3|o. a..m. ; ou,r &jieu,ds. would, scA^tw t '.emselves rou.nd at fehs points of the compass wherever their- whima and the hou,ser=rsnts drew tl|i,era ;• we should not know. TsjKen it w,a,a riubt andi wh&n it was wrong to.be in. town ; we should have no idea wkither to, betake ourselves to meet, or if need were, to avoyJ.ou,!' aeauaitv tances < i,he. hiifler would demand our dining at on,e ti,me of day or of, night, tl^a. cook would; stjrike for time. Nothing woul,d be beyond discu^jsioD,, andi there would be no. argument ' Everybody does it; 1 'Nobody does it ; ; ' 'People will think it stooge ;' ' People will think we ought ' — the, 'safe decisive, phrases, to the point and, unanswerable. Ho.w w,e i should miss them, in, ou,'r in^erminabje iSi-iypbeian debates, on, everything to be,, to do, and to suffer undier thje suu !; We are saved from chaos by Mrs Cr.rundy. But her benefits do not end ], . re — sue rewards our virtues, she. pa.lli vtes our vices, she is the of foola, I. o courage of the faint-heartjed, the.oon- .«. ience of us all. Mr Greathearfc vnas no guide along the road .from, thp Cijty qj; Destruction than through the. c> r* tbie world ; and she does not Radius i, ito breaks and uncomfortablje. v,a,ll&ys g,'i,d hills — no Apollyons and G,ia,n,t Jpes,pnirs for her ; she takes us along cijeap,. ! nicely rolled, level highways,, where, r.ea* \ pectable. people go, and the police mflue. on iucoi^ijent vagabonds. Again,. sjj.e is the guardiin of our domestic happiness. Fear of her censure keeps ill»a£sorted couples from a separa* tion, and at the same timi restrains them from " heading bricks " (meataphjOi;ically of course) a,t each other, outside the privacy of homje, "'to any great eKtenjt." It checks the incipent deolaration of rights of revolution^'y a.ons and daughters chafing under tlje pa^'Qn^al discipline ;. it prevents uucong^enial relations from, telling of each others- to presumably safe confidants. We inspire on,r little ones, with meritorious conduct by impressing their dawning intelligence with, a sens,e of her übiquitous supervision; she ia tf^ lsovidence of nursemaids and governesses. We loot to her to, store the minjdiOfi adolescence with manners. a,nd inoEaJijj, and well does she repay our trust. Goodhumourodly lenien,t to young men, tha fault is not hers if nt^ times some fopl,har,dy or dunderhead fellow abuses his privileges and,, turning against his benQtaotreis, breaks her rule of decorum. 4,ud then how capitally she manages our girls ! I,t is said that two or three hundred years, ago English parents were apted for their,

severe nnd even cruel rule ; surely the need they found for restraints and chastisements came from llifi al'sence of that gentler, though stronger control by Mis Grundy which lightens the hands of the parents of to-<dny. She existed and flourished then as she had done under her 1000 nnmes and phases since the world begnn, but not till railroads and conversion by newspapers made one locality of everywhere — the whole of the country suburb to the Metropolis— and abolished geo-, graphical limits of neighbourly criticism! coulcl she exercise tho all-pervading and alUpermeating influence to which we are accustomed. And the English nature is submissive to precedent, but is not obedient 5 our first impulse, when we are told we must do a thing, is to prove the must a mistake. We will do as others do, and that with the martyr's zeal, but not upon compulsion and not upon arguments. Mrs Grundy's whisper in our children's ears is wiser than Solomon's rod. ■=- Ezaminov: