How to Behave: A Pocket Manual of Republican Etiquette, and Guide to Correct Personal Habits

How to Behave: A Pocket Manual of Republican Etiquette, and Guide to Correct Personal Habits – Embracing An Exposition Of The Principles Of Good Manners; Useful Hints On The Care Of The Person, Eating, Drinking, Exercise, Habits, Dress, Self-Culture, And Behavior At Home; The Etiquette Of Salutations, Introductions, Receptions, Visits, Dinners, Evening Parties, Conversation, Letters, Presents, Weddings, Funerals, The Street, The Church, Places Of Amusement, Traveling, Etc., With Illustrative Anecdotes, a Chapter on Love and Courtship, and Rules of Order for Debating Societies. One can not commit a more significant mistake than to make politeness a mere matter of arbitrary forms.

It has a natural and permanent foundation in the nature and relations of men and women, government, and the common law. The civil code is not more binding upon us than is the code of civility. Portions of the former become, from time to time, inoperative—mere dead letters on the statute book, on account of the conditions on which they were founded ceasing to exist, and many of the enactments of the latter lose their significance and binding force from the exact cause. Many forms now in vogue in fashionable society are of this character. Under the circumstances that called them into existence, they were appropriate and beautiful; under changed circumstances, they are absurd. Other forms of observances over which time and place have no influence are permanently binding everywhere.