Vulgarity.

VULGARITY .

Is a very Avell written , article in the fcnvple Bar , for December , which we commend to the perusal of our readers , " Vulgarity" is divided into three categories , practically : " vulgar itas in se , " " vulgaritas prohibita , " and " vulgaritas

permissa . " The ingenious Avriter defines " vulgaritas in se " to be " things in speech , manners , and personal surroundings , Avhich the general code of good taste does not alloAv ;'' " vulgaritas prohibita , " actually all that

"the \ Aucondemtittd by those laws are specially forbidden by what we call good form ; " and vulgaritas permissa " to consist in other eccentric acts which a perverse taste would justify , or vitiated sympathies would condone . Very amusing and true are the following remarks on this fault : —

" No law can make stealing a virtue , or justify forgery , but what was considered at one time as ' vulgaritas in se ' can be be stripped of its repulsive character and made ' quite the thing , my dear , by bills of indemnity which are passed from time to time iu the Vehmgericht of Fashion . It

is thus very difficult to tell what is the ' vulgaritas in se , ' unless you are well posted up in the decrees of that mysterious tribunal . Thus , in the days of my youth , I was taught that it was vulgar to pick one ' s teeth in public . In the literature of

that period , when it Avas desirable to impress upon the reader the vulgarity of a character , he Avas made to pick his teeth . And yet I can remember the time when a young gentleman ' s afternoon toilet Avas not considered complete unless he had a

tooth pick in his mouth . Punch took it up , and John Leech gave us three golden youths in Noah ' s Ark coats thus provided , with an explanation that they were not smoking nasty cigarettes , but engaged in the new and elegant pursuit of chewing tooth

picks . But they did not mind . The habit was idle and nasty , but it had ceased to be vulgar . Again , it used to be considered that any arrangement or derangement of robes which Avould indicate tta lower portion of the female form < bvnie as bifurcate was a vulgarity . If he accidental position of a book or a parasol

on a lady ' s lap tended to demonstrate this fact , the demonstrator was hastily removed , and draperies readjusted Avith a blush . The vulgarity of the immortal Mrs . Gamp beamed out of her knees , both on paper and on the stage . We have changed all

that . Ladies deliberately adopt arrangements for relieving the imagination of trouble in conjecturing anatomical details . Knees are worn—and I should not wonder

if eating peas Avith one s knife should some day come into fashion and be pronounced ' ever so nice !'" We quite agree , also , Avith the subsequent able and happy delineation of things as they are ;—"It is curious to observe that good

society admires in art ( which is supposed to hold the mirror up to nature ) what it Avill not tolerate , and declines to adopt , in every-day life . It applauds emotions of joy , mirth , or sorrow , properly rendered on the stageor fixed on canvas or on

, marble by a master hand . If Mrs . Bancroft , playing the ' ingenue , ' had to say such a phrase as , ' Oh ! wouldn't it be nice ! ' and did say it in the old Marie Wilton form , with clasped hands and glittering eyesand a smile of joy breaking

, like a sun-lit Avave all over , and lifting her on tip-toe—then a flutter of approval would agitate even the demure domain of the stalls . But if Miss-in-her-Teens were

guilty of a similar overt act of pleasure in a draAving-room , a tap on the shoulder with mamma's fan and a reproof would be the reAvard . Miss-in-her-T wen ties would wink and yaAvn 'jolly—rather , ' and to t / tat there could be no objection . To be natural is to ' gush' and to ' gush' is vulgar—at

, present . As a test of my other proposition , let me ask how many persons , readers of fashion , male or female , could afford to have their portraits taken in the clothes they usually wear , and in the positions Avhich they habitually assume ? I shall be

told that it won ' t do to paint a portrait in the height of any fashion , because in a few years it will look' so odd , ' ancl this I grant ; but inelegance and—I must write

it—indelicacy must ahvays be something worse than * odd , ' and that which will not bear representation on canvas is surely to be condemned in * the round . ' " A bygone generation considered it a vulgarity to be in good bodily health . It