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The polite person is quiet, simple in his manners, and unobtrusive, and may always be recognized by these traits..

14. By shunning affectation we shall spare ourselves and others a great deal of unpleasantness. It is a violation done to Nature, which offends every one, and is a species of untruth.

15. Study to frame your expressions in terms of kindness and respect; for a careless word may inflict cruel and unmerited pain. Avoid as far as practicable expressing your opinions upon wrong actions, for while you are hardly capable of judging of the whole ground, you know not whom you may thus offend. To speak in sharp tones of censure in ordinary conversation becomes no one; and it is better to leave our sentiments to be inferred and justified by our usual mode of life. We may know the tree by its fruits; and need not eat of such as we do not like. Leave judgment to Him who knows all hearts.

16 Passing between persons who are engaged in conversation with each other, or between persons and the fire, or unpleasantly near to them, should be avoided. If it were to become necessary, one should say “ With your permission, Sir, or Madame," "Excuse me, Sir,"at the same time making the person addressed a respectful obeisance.

17. As raiment is necessary to decency, so charity should cover many of the frailties of humanity. Delicacy of sentiment, as well as respect for humanity, requires us to abstain from unnecessarily exposing the faults of our neighbors. Of all persons there is no one so truly ridiculous and pitiable as he who ridicules others. It brought a curse upon Hain. It is often the evidence of great self

conceit and over-weening vanity, or of some more latent and worse defect of character still. They who sought to compass the death of Socrates, began by ridiculing his natural defects of person on the stage; and they who derisively wagged their heads at a crucified Saviour, were triumphing in their own disgrace.

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19. To rally or joke one upon any subject must be very delicately done to be permissible and least of all should one make rude allusions to a person's courtship or marriage. 20. Pretentions that go beyond the bounds of modesty, and great ambition in ¡little matters, such as a display in dress, manners, and etiquette, though they may excite the admiration of the ignorant, are, with the well bred, only subjects for pity.

21. In doing your friend a favor, or making him a present, strive to render it agreeable and acceptable to him, and be particularly careful not to lay him under any obligation, and never allude to it afterwards. No one will thank you for imposing upon him a restraint. Study liberality in your gifts; they benefit the giver rather than the receiver. To render the practice of liberality easy and graceful, children should be taught to share their things with others from their earliest days.

22. Never complain of the wrongs or injuries that you may have received; for the world is prone to impute one's complaints to some defect in himself rather than to the injustice of others. Religion teaches to forget injuries. Acts of ingratitude are much oftener suspected than committed.

23. The well bred man is always careful never to make direct inquiries of any person concerning his absent friends, lest he might intrude upon some unknown grief. While receivng visits he never exhibits any signs of uneasiness or inconvenience from the presence of his visitors, however much he might wish them absent, and he never shuts the door after them violently, on their taking leave.

24. One will seldom err by maintaining a firm faith in the dignity of human nature, and in lending a slow credence to whatever is monstrously disgraceful to it. Charity thinketh no evil. A proper avoidance of evil suspicions will save the spirit from much unhealthfulness, as well as the features from certain lines that tend to mar their beauty.

25. It is a mark of true gentility to treat the lowly with kindness and affability. A sneer as little becomes the countenance as irony does the speech; the less they are indulged in the better. A coarse, ill bred person will often be rude and insolent to inferiors.

26. Never treat any one with contempt.

27. Malice and envy will always be felt by the weak; but good manners are a training that will aid us to suppress their exhibition, and even by degrees to overcome their prevalence in society.

28. Coughing, sneezing, clearing the throat, etc., if done at all, must be done quietly. Sniffing, snuffling, expectorating, must never be performed in society under any consideration.

29. In all our relations with our fellow men, whether public or private, anything approaching to coarseness, undue familiarity, or levity of conduct, is prolific of evil. As the vestal virgins of Rome were entrusted with the

care of that sacred fire which was never to burn low, and never to be allowed to go out, so are our wives, mothers, and daughters, charged with the no less sacred worship of decorum. No amount of wealth, no amount of generosity, no amount of good management, can make a household respected where decorum and good breeding are wanting. The tone of vulgarity infects alike the nursery, the kitchen and the drawing room, and is carried with us like a contagion wherever we go. A woman exercises so much influence in her home, that the power of banishing an evil element rests chiefly with the wife, the mother, or the daughter of the family. If they are uniformly refined and modest in word and act; if they reprove every approach to lightness of conduct or indelicacy of speech; if they deprecate all possible inroads upon the mutual respect which it is so essential to maintain between the members of a family, they will assuredly have their reward in the peace, order, and happiness of their home. 30. If a person of greater age or higher position than your own desires you to step first into a carriage, or through a doorway, it is more polite to bow and obey than to decline. Compliance with, and deference to, the wishes of others, if not carried to the extent of impairing moral integrity, is the finest breeding.

31. On entering a morning exhibition, or public room, especially where ladies are present, it is good breeding to lift the hat and give the assembly a bow, by way of a general salute to the company. The Frenchman often does this on entering the railway car. It is not pleasant to be gazed at when entering an assembly.

32. Be careful never to make long calls or visits; and avoid examining or handling the things, either upon the

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table or elsewhere, in your friend's house, unless invited so to do. Never touch objects of art with the fingers, cane, nor umbrella, nor even point at them.

33. A wide latitude must be allowed in Republics for difference of opinion, but every one is responsible that his own opinion shall conform to the truth, as nearly as possible. As two persons often mutually step aside in order to avoid an accidental collision, so it is better to divert discussion from that direct opposition of opinion which leads to heated and useless controversy.

34. Persons of genteel breeding will never indulge in what the ill-bred call jokes, which are often coarse misrepresentations of fact, or perhaps positive falsehoods, delightful only to malicious tempers and perverted tastes. This vulgar trait has been noticed from very early times. The Bible speaks of men who scatter fire brands and death in the community, and claim exemption from the ill opinion which their wickedness merits, by saying that they are only in sport, as if their amusement could mitigate the wrong and suffering which they inflict upon others. A passion for equality may lead people to tear each other down; but a passion for liberty and fraternity should incline us to build each other up.

35. The occasional pleasantry in which the well-bred indulge never conceals nor misrepresents the truth, but merely throws, as it were, a thin gauze over it, heightening the pleasant effect as the veil sometimes does that of beauty, which it shields from too close a gaze. Plain sin

cerity and truth are always the best breeding.

36. The essence of politeness consists in so conducting ourselves, in word and manner, that others may be pleased both with us and with themselves.

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