A GOOD INVESTMENT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 6, 11 February 1893, Page 133

A GOOD INVESTMENT.

There is a thing which every young person of either sex starting out in life may buy without money and without price, and yet which will inevitably yield splendid returns on the investment, and that is a stock of courtesy and politeness. This possession cannot be acquired with money, but it may be gained by the exercise and cultivation of a few of the attributes and qualities with which every human being is endowed to a greater or less degree. It can be secured to perfection only by cherishing the spirit of selfabnegation and ruthlessly weeding out selfishness and overweening conceit, but it may be attained to a very considerable degree without the tremendous effort which continual self sacrifice involves.

From every point of view politeness merits cultivation, even from that of the most complete self-interest. Personal comfort, happiness and pleasure, while not the summum bonum of the Epicurean school of philosophy, are still well worth having, and in no way can they be so certainly secured as by the exercise of courtesy towards others. No one can be isolated or independent in this world, hence our comfort must depend on our conduct to others and their appreciation of it. That these are trite observations there is no attempt to deny, but every day must convince the unprejudiced observer that there is need that they be enforced and recalled. It may be that the present generation of youth is no more impolite or discourteous than the one which has preceded it, but that is no excuse for the lack of good manners so prevalent now. Boys and girls—and there is little to choose between them—appear to think that it is smart to be rude and brusque, or even uncouth ; that their standing would suffer if they showed any deference to anybody, and that the height of good manners and breeding is compounded of a sneer and a swagger. If these young people would but rememoer that a wound to one’s vanity is long in healing, and that their companions and acquaintances, even of their own age, like to be treated with ordinary respect, they would save themselves a great deal of trouble and discomfort. It is really quite as easy to be polite as impolite, and to be courteous as rude. They should remember that one wise man has said ‘Manners makyth ye man,’ and another ‘ Bad manners are a species of bad morals,’ and that the world, not always wise in its opinions, will judge them as much by what they seem as what they are.