A 'Society for the Diffusion of Fashionable Knowledge' was announced;
the Millionaires looked triumphantly mysterious, the aristocrats
quizzed. The object of the society is intimated by its title; and the
method by which its institutors proposed to attain this object was the
periodical publication of pamphlets, under the superintendence of a
competent committee. The first treatise appeared: its subject was
NONCHALANCE. It instructed its students ever to appear inattentive in
the society of men, and heartless when they conversed with women. It
taught them not to understand a man if he were witty; to misunderstand
him if he were eloquent; to yawn or stare if he chanced to elevate his
voice, or presumed to ruffle the placidity of the social calm by
addressing his fellow-creatures with teeth unparted. Excellence was
never to be recognised, but only disparaged with a look: an opinion or a
sentiment, and the nonchalant was lost for ever. For these, he was to
substitute a smile like a damp sunbeam, a moderate curl of the upper
lip, and the all-speaking and perpetual shrug of the shoulders.
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