CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



there is a large proportion who know of each 

 other very little beyond the fact that they are of 

 the same country, and perhaps not even that. 

 There must be a best rule of deportment for all 

 these classes ; and no one will deny that, if this 

 rule were defined and faithfully applied, there 

 would be much more of everyday comfort and 

 complacency in the world than there is well known 

 to be. If we rightly understand the meaning of 

 civility, it is the manifestation of kind feelings, 

 and of a desire to do all things which are to be 

 done under the influence of such feelings, in a 

 becoming and agreeable manner. 



If every person understood the true foundation 

 of society, the common origin of all its members, 

 their natural and necessary sympathies, their 

 community of interests, their necessary action 

 upon and with each other, it might be supposed 

 that all who are reasonable would be civil. They 

 would be so, because they would promote their 

 own good ; because they would be doing what it is 

 proper to do to promote the good of others ; and 

 because they would know that in so doing they 

 would conform to the design of their creation. 

 We do not include under the term civility the 

 great duties of justice, acts of munificence, im- 

 portant personal services. These arise out of 

 some special relation which an individual bears 

 to one or more other individuals. It seems to be 

 limited to the manner in which the common or 

 accidental intercourse of the members of society in 

 general should be carried on. This matter may be 

 better understood by some examples. Thus, if 

 one comes into the presence of another, as a 

 beggar, servant, labourer, mechanic, trader, mer- 

 chant, farmer, lawyer, physician, clergyman, or 

 public officer, or if it be a female, or child of either 

 sex, there may be very various modes of receiving 

 these different persons yet certainly, by every 

 one of the laws which we are endeavouring to 

 illustrate, these several persons are entitled to 

 civility. Even the beggar perhaps one should 

 rather say the beggar in particular if not de- 

 formed by voluntary transgression, should be 

 received with civility that is, gentleness, kind- 

 ness, decorum are to be observed relatively to 

 each one. Why ? Because no man can afford 

 to be deemed insensible to the cause of reasonable 

 humanity ; nor a stranger to the decencies of life ; 

 nor ignorant of what is due from him, or to him, 

 in any of his proper relations. 



There is perhaps no kind of incivility more con- 

 temptible than that which is exercised towards 

 those servants of the public who would be liable 

 to the loss of their situations were they to resent 

 as they must naturally feel inclined to do the 

 insolence to which they are frequently subjected. 

 It is no uncommon thing to hear young men 

 giving their orders in the most authoritative and 

 offensive manner to waiters at inns, stewards of 

 steam-vessels, or any other class of functionaries 

 whose sen-ices for the time may be at their com- 

 mand ; and abusing the poor fellows who are 

 doing their utmost to serve them for their stupidity 

 and awkwardness, while they may all the while 

 be performing their work in the most efficient 

 and unexceptionable manner. And this imperti- 

 nence they employ for the purpose of impressing 

 those who may be witnesses of their behaviour 

 with a favourable opinion of their smartness and 

 knowledge of the world. They could not adopt 



554 



a surer plan to defeat the object which they have 

 in view ; for every well-bred person will regard 

 their conduct with disgust, and will look upon it 

 as a sure indication of ignorance, impertinence, 

 and want of sense. This is an error, however, 

 which, in the great majority of instances, time 

 and experience will correct. But we sometimes 

 find similar conduct manifested by those who 

 cannot plead youth and inexperience in justifica- 

 tion of their coarseness and incivility. Such 

 persons we are in general quite safe in setting 

 down as individuals who wish to appear above 

 the sphere in which they are entitled to move, 

 and who, feeling that they have no claim to the 

 character which they have assumed, endeavour 

 to conceal their deficiencies from the observation 

 of others by behaving in a rude and brutal manner 

 to those who are prevented by their position from 

 resenting such conduct. 



There is one other consideration which operates 

 on all men who have had much experience in the 

 world. Men and things change, and take new 

 and unexpected relations. Persons who have 

 been long, and even intimately connected, sud- 

 denly or gradually sever ; persons who have 

 known little of each other, and that little un- 

 interesting or unfavourable, are brought in con- 

 tact by some unexpected turn of affairs. Some- 

 times one needs favours, or at least good-will, from 

 those he never thought to be of the least import- 

 ance to him. In such, and in a multitude of other 

 circumstances, one may find the advantages of 

 having been acquainted with the virtue of civility, 

 which implies that one has given no unnecessary 

 offence. There are other cases in which a person 

 may be called on by duty to do things disagree- 

 able to himself, and exceedingly so to others. 

 But there cannot be any good sense in performing 

 such duty morosely, and with inhumanity. 



A refined species of civility is sometimes ex- 

 pressed by the term politeness, which is an- 

 exterior indication of good-breeding or good- 

 manners, and may be defined as that mode of 

 behaviour which not only gives no offence, but 

 which affords agreeable sensations to our fellow- 

 creatures. In our intercourse with the world, this 

 species of civility is imperative. 



As men are of different dispositions and tempers, 

 they would assuredly fall out with each other, if 

 each were to say to another whatever arose in 

 his thoughts. In order to avoid giving offence, it 

 is necessary to put a restraint upon our thoughts 

 in company, and only say what we think will- 

 probably not be displeasing to any. In asso- 

 ciating, men have also found it necessary to 

 observe certain set forms of speech and conduct, 

 of a respectful and affectionate kind, towards each 

 other. One, in writing a letter to another, sub- 

 scribes himself as his ' obedient servant,' though 

 the individual whom he is addressing may be 

 quite a stranger. If the writer be acquainted with 

 the person addressed, he calls him ' dear sir,' 

 though he may, in reality care little about him. 

 This is not insincerity ; it is simply a mode of 

 avoiding an appearance of rudeness or bluntness, 

 which could not fail to hurt the feelings of the re- 

 ceiver of the letter. No doubt many are little dis- 

 posed to make a show of politeness ; but it is 

 proper, nevertheless, that it should be made, 

 because anything else would be offensive. It 

 is better to put a slight constraint upon our 



