Cliques.

CLIQUES .

MAN has been defined as a gregarious animal , but in his highly civilised condition he is gregarious only to a limited extent . He loves the society of his kind it is true , but then it must be such society as he fully approves . He has often little sympathy for those members of the

human family who do not move in the rut in which his existence is cast . He looks down with contempt upon those who are poorer than himself , and devotes a considerable portion of his time to the task of getting into a clique

a degree above him in the social scale . The human family , in these latitudes at least , is indeed cut up into sections which are as sharply defined as the arbitrary distinctions of the Hindoo . We have discarded " caste" and the

" tribe , " and have substituted the clique as the most reasonable method of sub-dividing the human family . Tribal or caste distinctions might be difficult to maintain in a country like ours where so many persons are ignorant that they ever had great grandfathers ; but the clique fulfils all the exclusive demands of the British snob

without taxing too severely his power of inventing a pedigree . We can enter a clique readily enough provided we can prove to the satisfaction of the members of it that we possess the necessary littleness of mind , and the other trifling distinctions which are demanded by the rules of

the Fraternity . The clique literary , for example , is usually composed of second rate journalists , and authors who have formed themselves into a mutual admiration society for the sake of puffing each other ' s work . To become a member of this mysterious circle you must spend many years

in a condition of probation . Your best articles will be rejected by the members as beneath their notice , and your novels will be "jumped upon" in the literary reviews . But when you have reached the condition of a literary hack , and can write nothing that possesses originality or

merit , the members of the little coterie will welcome you to their circle with open demonstrations of good will . You have become one of themselves , you have graduated into the condition of a mere dealer in platitude . The rich strata of mental treasure which was in your brain has been

worked out , and you are at last regarded as an equal by men who never in their lives were able to jingle two ideas together in their own feeble heads . We could point to periodicals once powerful , which , having passed into the

hands of these people , have become mere vehicles for the display of the imbecility and the folly of creatures who were not worthy to loose the shoestrings of the men they have succeeded .

Again , there is the clique scientific , represented by persons like the tailor in Gulliver ' s Travels , who took the measure of a customer with a quadrant . These people talk a detestable jargon , compounded of Greek and English in equal proportions . Their leading idea is that science

should be made mysterious to the vulgar , and with that laudable end in view they veil simple things under a cloud of words . In the jargon of the clique of geologists , for example , the great fossil lizard becomes the Ichthyosaurus or fish reptile . The fossil tapir becomes the Palceotherium

or ancient wild beast ; another monster is the Megatherium or great wild beast . But these names are mere trifles ; such words as Megalomjx and Scelidothmum have been

applied b y these worthies to distinguishedallied species , and we are required to believe that these "jaw breakers , " as the Scotch would call them , are all necessary for the elucidation of simple scientific facts . The truth is , that with-

Cliques.

out the assistance of a veil of words the geologists would soon find their preserves invaded by persons with whom the clique would not care to associate . The man who can call a fossil tapir Palceotherium , and who can dub the study of fossils with the title of palaeontology imagines he

has achieved a victory over the vulgar , and no doubt he has . That there are medical cliques every person knows who has had occasion to consult a physician . The member of the medical clique feels your pulse , looks at your tongue , and scrawls his prescription in a jargon as nearly like the

gibberish with which school boys amuse themselves , as anything of such serious import can well be . But the "dog latin" of his prescription is innocent compared with , the outrageous rubbish , in the shape of coined words , with which the medical journals are filled . The members of

the medical clique cannot describe so simple a thing as the amputation of a limb , or the cure of an enlarged artery without the' use of words which belong to no language that ever existed . The jargon is used to warn off intruders from the sacred preserves of the clique , and' it no doubt effectually serves its purpose .

Then we have the clique composed of the rich and vulgar , who require ample proof that your balance at the banker ' s is satisfactory before they will deign to countenance you . You might be a Milton ov a Shakspeare for aught they know or care . The treasures of the mind are

nothing in their estimation , and men are classified by their money bags , and scorned or venerated accordingly . These people exist merely to display their wealth . Their houses are filled to overflowing with art treasures , and the art trumpery which is now so fashionable . The members of

the clique regularly attend Christie and Hanson ' s sales , and squabble and outbid each other over a celebrated daub , merely for the fame which will accrue to them from the purchase of a " masterpiece " at a fabulous price . Snobson glories in being pointed out as the man who gave

£ 20 , 000 for a piece of blackened canvas , upon which scarcely any traces of the pencil of the painter remain . He flings away his money upon crockery , because it is fashionable to do so , but , in his heart of hearts , he thinks the drop scene at the Gaiety a finer picture than any

Claude in his gallery ; and his cut glass decanters he secretly holds are superior to the Portland vase . He pretends to love art because it is the fashion , but he knows no more about it than a savage , and satisfies himself for his extravagance by dreaming of the fame which will accrue to him when his collection comes to the hammer .

Such are some few of the cliques into which our complex society has become divided . We might particularise others , but we weary of the task . The world is , indeed , composed of cliques . What , indeed , is a nation but a clique

on a gigantic scale , and Masonry , were it not for the breadth of the principles which it teaches , might almost be regarded as a clique of mystery men , banded together for the purpose of indulging in the universal weakness for the outre and the marvellous .

Prejudices.

PREJUDICES .

PREJUDICES are partial judgments in favour of , or against certain persons or things , and , for convenience sake , may be ranged in two categories—those which are , comparatively speaking , harmless , and those which are harmful . Under the former category we include those which , be they favourable or the reverse , people exhibit