Our Deportment: Or the Manners, Conduct and Dress of the Most Refined Society — John Shaqi
Our Deportment: Or the Manners, Conduct and Dress of the Most Refined SocietyYoung, John H.
General
Our Deportment: Or the Manners, Conduct and Dress of the Most Refined Society
Young, John H.
Etiquette
Politeness is benevolence in small things. A true gentleman must regard
the rights and feelings of others, even in matters the most trivial. He
respects the individuality of others, just as he wishes others to
respect his own. In society he is quiet, easy, unobtrusive, putting on
no airs, nor hinting by word or manner that he deems himself better, or
wiser, or richer than any one about him. He never boasts of his
achievements, or fishes for compliments by affecting to underrate what
he has done. He is distinguished, above all things, by his deep insight
and sympathy, his quick perception of, and prompt attention to, those
small and apparently insignificant things that may cause pleasure or
pain to others. In giving his opinions he does not dogmatize; he listens
patiently and respectfully to other men, and, if compelled to dissent
from their opinions, acknowledges his fallibility and asserts his own
views in such a manner as to command the respect of all who hear him.
Frankness and cordiality mark all his intercourse with his fellows,
and, however high his station, the humblest man feels instantly at ease
in his presence.
THE TRUE LADY.
Calvert says: "Ladyhood is an emanation from the heart subtilized by
culture;" giving as two requisites for the highest breeding, transmitted
qualities and the culture of good training. He continues: "Of the higher
type of ladyhood may always be said what Steele said of Lady Elizabeth
Hastings, 'that unaffected freedom and conscious innocence gave her the
attendance of the graces in all her actions.' At its highest, ladyhood
implies a spirituality made manifest in poetic grace. From the lady
there exhales a subtle magnetism. Unconsciously she encircles herself
with an atmosphere of unruffled strength, which, to those who come into
it, gives confidence and repose. Within her influence the diffident grow
self-possessed, the impudent are checked, the inconsiderate are
admonished; even the rude are constrained to be mannerly, and the
refined are perfected; all spelled, unawares, by the flexible dignity,
the commanding gentleness, the thorough womanliness of her look, speech
and demeanor. A sway is this, purely spiritual. Every sway, every
legitimate, every enduring sway is spiritual; a regnancy of light over
obscurity, of right over brutality. The only real gains ever made are
spiritual gains--a further subjection of the gross to the incorporeal,
of body to soul, of the animal to the human. The finest and most
characteristic acts of a lady involve a spiritual ascension, a growing
out of herself. In her being and bearing, patience, generosity,
benignity are the graces that give shape to the virtues of
truthfulness."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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