8i MANNERS AND FASHION. 



Going back, in imagination, to the remote era when 

 men's theories of things were yet unformed ; and conceiv- 

 ing to ourselves the conquering chief as dimly figured in 

 ancient myths, and poems, and ruins ; we may see that all 

 rules of conduct whatever spring from his will. Alike 

 legislator and judge, all quarrels among his subjects are 

 decided by him ; and his words become the Law. Awe of 

 him is the incipient Religion ; and his maxims furnish its 

 first precepts. Submission is made to him in the forma 

 he prescribes ; and these give birth to Manners. From 

 the first, time developes political allegiance and the ad- 

 ministration of justice ; from the second, the worship 

 of a being w^hose ^personality becomes ever more vague, 

 and the inculcation of precepts ever more abstract ; 

 from the third, forms of honour and the rules of eti- 

 quette. 



In conformity with the law of evolution of all organ- 

 ized bodies, that general functions are gradually separated 

 into the special functions constituting them, there have 

 grown up in the social organism for the better performance 

 of the governmental ofilce, an apjoaratus of law-courts, 

 judges, and barristers ; a national church, with its bishops 

 and priests ; and a system of casle, titles, and ceremonies, 

 administered by society at large. By the first, overt 

 aggressions are cognized and punished ; by the second, 

 the disposition to commit such aggressions is in some 

 degree checked ; by the third, those minor breaches of 

 good conduct, which the others do not notice, are de- 

 nounced and chastised. Law and Religion control be- 

 haviour in its essentials : Manners control it in its details. 

 For regulating those daily actions which are too nu- 

 merous and too unimportant to be ofiicially directed, 

 there comes into play this subtler set of restraints. And 

 when we consider what these restraints are — when we 

 analyze the words, and phrases, and salutes employed 



