Conscience does make cowards of us all.

The books of Jane Austen are riddled with the use of rank and prestige within society, a situation which still lives to this day. 

In those days the intricacies of form were a labyrinth  of formality and structure. In less than a two hundred years we have attained our savage face once again.

The curious tension that used to exist between male and female, the reserve and the respect are all gone. That first stolen kiss leading to a pounding heart and confusion as to what you were letting yourself in for. That involvement with a creature, so like yourself yet so different. It was if there had been a changing of the guard, with instructions now being issued by another individual for which you were only too happy to comply so long as you pleased the lass.

Clothes were no longer something to hide your frame and keep you warm, they became a fashion accessory something to attract attention. Hair, toiletry and the consumption of polo mints took on a substantive importance such as never before. In your mothers eyes at least, you were smashing.

The trials of unrequited love ❤️ were just beginning. The torture of being rejected was fresh. The lyrics of the songsmiths gained new relevance "If I fell in love with you would you promise to be true" was a sad refrain when she ditched you for the other fella. Oscars lament that "it was better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all" was no recompense.

They were marvellous years as much for the pathos as for the satisfaction. They are the moments you still remember as if it were only 'yesterday', (another lyric, another memory).

So Jane your writings still had relevance, a relevance today's young people would probably claim superfluous. Bing bash bong is the current trends one night stand arrangement. Living out of wedlock, raising children without a partner and wearing the single parent motherhood as a badge of honour.  

Of course it also carries the badge of choice and free will but in my estimation, free will is a difficult road to travel. You have to be hedonistic, self centred and selfish for it all not to carry with it a few pangs of conscience.