matter of breeding. But it so happened, that, exactly at
this point of my record, a very distinguished philosopher, whom several
of our boarders and myself go to hear, and whom no doubt many of my
readers follow habitually, treated this matter of _manners_. Up to this
point, if I have been so fortunate as to coincide with him in opinion,
and so unfortunate as to try to express what he has more felicitously
said, nobody is to blame; for what has been given thus far was all
written before the lecture was delivered. But what shall I do now? He
told us it was childish to lay down rules for deportment,--but he could
not help laying down a few.

Thus,--_Nothing so vulgar as to be in a hurry._--True, but hard of
application. People with short legs step quickly, because legs are
pendulums, and swing more times in a minute the shorter they are.
Generally a natural rhythm runs through the whole organization: quick
pulse, fast breathing, hasty speech, rapid trains of thought, excitable
temper. _Stillness_ of person and steadiness of features are signal
marks of good-breeding. Vulgar persons can't sit still, or, at least,
they must work their limbs--or features.

_Talking of one's own ails and grievances._--Bad enough, but not so bad
as insulting the person you talk with by remarking on his ill-looks, or
appearing to notice any of his personal peculiarities.

_Apologizing._--A very desperate habit,--one that is rarely cured.
Apology is only egotism wrong side out. Nine times out of ten, the first
thing a man's companion knows of his shortcoming is from his apology. It
is mighty presumptuous on your part to suppose your small failures of so
much consequence that you must make a talk about them.

Good dressing, quiet ways, low tones of voice, lips that can wait, and
eyes that do not wander,--shyness of personalities, except in certain
intimate communions,--to be _light in hand_ in conversation, to have
ideas, but to be able to make talk, if necessary, without them,--to
belong to the company you are in, and not to yourself,--to have nothing
in your dress or furniture so fine that you cannot afford to spoil it
and get another like it, yet to preserve the harmonies throughout your
person and dwelling: I should say that this was a fair capital of
manners to begin with.

Under bad manners, as under graver faults, lies very commonly an
overestimate of our special individuality, as distinguished from our
generic humanity. It is just h