522 SOME LADIES OP THE OLD SCHOOL. indecent tales, and all that constitutes what Miss Wolls- tonecraft styles " bodily wit," are the natural resource of ignorant, idle minds ; and, a hundred years ago, the minds of nearly all ladies were ignorant and idle. I assert, without hesitation, that the ordinary intercourse of human beings as human beings is more decent, more dignified, more kindly and more sincere, than it was. For two or three months one summer, I lived at a beach on the coast of Maine, where, in all, during the season, there must have been as many as two thousand persons, of all sorts and conditions, of all religions and nationali- ties.- I can almost say that there was not a rude or ungracious act done by one of them. Nobody was stuck up ; nobody made any parade of wealth, or pretended to any superiority on account of his family or occupation. At the same time proper privacy was not intruded upon. Every one seemed to wish well to others, and the utmost friendliness prevailed at all times. Cards every evening, but no gambling ; dancing every evening, but all over at eleven o'clock ; plenty of hilarity, but scarcely any drink- ing. All was pleasant, cheerful, elegant, decorous, free. "Warm discussions upon politics and religion, but no intol- erance or ill temper. I say with the boldness arising from long research, that such a company, gathered for a similar purpose, in a similar place, during the last century, would have been less innocent, less decorous, less polite. There would have been high play, deep drinking, love intrigues, and no meeting of rich and not rich, distin- guished and undistinguished, on terms of friendly equality. Another fact: In a drawer of the bowling alley, I found one day a Latin dictionary, a Livy, and a Vergil ; and I discovered, a few days after, that they belonged to the boy who had charge of the alley. He was preparing for college ! "When no one was playing, out came his Vergil from the drawer ; and he kept at it till the next
