THE POLITE BOY

New Zealand Tablet, 2 December 1909, Page 1412

THE POLITE BOY

In this world of rush, push, hurry, and worry, what a pleasure it is now and again t& come across* a polite- person, and the pleasure, is all the more if the person happens be young, for experience -tells us that many 1 of the' j^oung of both sexes nowadays are sadly lacking, in one of the' principal external graces of character — politeness. "Emerson tells us that a" beautiful behaviour'; is better than a' beautiful form; it gives a higher pleasure :thaiT statues. and pictures; it is the finest of all the "fine'^rts.' .Politeness is nothing more or n less,than a beautiful behayiour. Polite persons are courteous, .sincere, '„ kind; r and' truthful 1 ;to £ver#-' one, especially to those, placed in\'a w lower rank than,'themiselves. There is nothing of the swagger or the ( brag* about, them, and they have the _happy faculty of always placitig" self in the background. Rudeness and, vulgarity "in any shape or form are thing's altogether foreign '! to their ;riature, and to say or act uncivil^ is not in their composition.