ETIQUETTE IN SOCIETY.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1816, 18 May 1874, Page 3

ETIQUETTE IN SOCIETY.

Theee is a groat deal of contempt ex- . pressed for what is called etiquotto >in :j. society. Now and then the elements of etiquette . perhaps might 1 well be ridiculed; but in the main there is a just reason for all those customs which como undor- the head of etiquette. There is a reason in the avoidance of offence. Thero is a reason in comfort and happiness. And no man can afford to . violate thcso..!. unwritten customs of otiquette who wishes to act a Christian gentleniah.' I may speak, also, of'a 1 tendency which is bred by our institutions—the want of veneration. , There, are various, wayafa lit whicli the want of veneration shows- itself.' We often hear that, there is.not the same respect shown for the aged as thero used : to be. We know that there,is very little respect for magistrates and men in authority. This is partly due, I think,;, - to the institutions under which wo livo.' One of the unfortunate effects derived from the early stages of democratic train- ' ing is the sense of personal sovereignty; the feeling that we stand on as highground as anybody else. Under monarchical institutions men are taught to revere the grand and glorious in government. Tho feeling of reverence does not prevail ■ to' any great extent among us. -I discora a. great lack in this respect. Children, now-a-days, are brought up to : bo pert, to ' be saucy, to bo almost without, restraint.,; They are brought up to have very little:' regard either for their paronts or their superiors. And, although there are a great many Christian households where children are rightly bred in this regard, it seems to me ; there has v t ' been a decay of -that instruction, which used to prevail, the tendency' of which was to make children modest arid respectful. .We bring up our children to be old and smart and impertinent. This courtesy, which carries with it respect; this testimony of veneration to. the aged; this yielding oneself "in"a'. ■' thousand little society rites for the sake of making others happy—oil, : what brightness it gives to life! What beauty, what adornment it gives to Christian character! —H. W. Beecher.