294 MANN 
And, God he thanked, there hardly happeneth a duel in 
a year, which may not be imputed to one of thofe three 
motives. Upon which account, I fhould be exceedingly 
forry to find the legiflature make any new laws againft 
the practice of duelling; becaufe the methods are eafy, 
ar.d many, fora wife man to avoid a quarrel with honour, 
or engage in it with innocence. And I can difcover no 
political evil, in buffering bullies, (harpers, and rakes, to 
rid the world of each other by a method of their own, 
where the law hath not been able to find an expedient. 
“ As the common forms of good manners were intended 
for regulating the conduct of thofe who have weak un- 
derltandings; fo they have been corrupted by the perfons 
for whofe ufe they were contrived : for thel'e people have 
fallen into a needlefs and endlefs way of multiplying ce¬ 
remonies, which have been extremely troublefome to thofe 
w ho praftife them, and infupportabie to every body elfe; 
infomuch that wife men are often more uneafy at the over 
civility of thefe refiners, than they could poffibly be in the 
converfation of peafants or mechanics. The impertinences 
of this ceremonial behaviour are no-where better feen than 
at thofe tables, where ladies prefide who value themfelves 
upon account of their good breeding; where a man muft 
reckon upon pafiing an hour without doing any one thing 
lie hath a mind to, unlefs he will be fo hardy as to break 
through all the fettled decorum of fuch a family. She 
determines what he loveth belt, and how much he (hall 
eat; and, if the mailer of the houfe happeneth to be of 
the fame difpofition, he proceedeth in the fame tyranni¬ 
cal manner to prefcribe in the drinking part : at the fame 
time you are under the neceffity of anfwering a tboufand 
apologies for your entertainment. And, although a good 
deal of this humour is pretty well worn off among many 
people of the belt falhion, yet too much of it ltill remain- 
eth, efpecially in the country ; where an honelt gentle¬ 
man allured me, that, having been kept four days againft: 
his will at a friend’s houfe, with all the circumltances of 
hiding his boots, locking up the liable, and other contri¬ 
vances of the like nature, he could not remember, from 
the moment he came into the houfe to the moment he left 
if, any one thing wherein his inclination was not direftly 
contradicted; as if the whole family had entered into a 
combination to torment him. 
“ But, befides all this, it would be endlefs to recount 
the many foolilh and ridiculous accidents I have obferved 
among thefe unfortunate profelytes to ceremony. I have 
feen a duchefs fairly knocked down by the precipitancy of 
an officious coxcomb running to fave her the trouble of 
opening a door. 1 remember, upon a birth-day at court, 
a great lady was rendered utterly difconfolate, by a dilh of 
iauce let fall by a page direflly upon her head-drefs and 
Brocade, while (lie gave a hidden turn to her elbow upon 
home point of ceremony with the perfon who fat next her. 
Monfieur Buys, the Dutch envoy, whofe politics and man¬ 
ners were much of a fize, brought a fon with him about 
thirteen years old to a great table at court. The boy and 
his father, whatever they put on their plates, they firft of¬ 
fered round in order, to every perlon in the company ; fo 
that we could not get a minute’s quiet during the whole 
dinner. At laft their two plates happened to encounter, 
and with fo much violence, that, being china, they broke 
in twenty pieces, and ftained half the company with wet 
fweetmeats and cream. 
“There is a pedantry in manners as in all arts and fci- 
ences, and fometimes in trades. Pedantry is properly the 
over-rating any kind of knowledge we pretend to. And, 
if that kind of knowledge be a trifle in itfelf, the pedantry 
is the greater. For which reafon, 1 look upon fiddlers, 
dancing-mafters, heralds, mafters of the ceremony, &c, 
to be greater pedants than Lipiius or the elder Scaliger. 
With thefe kind of pedants, the court, while I knew it, 
was always plentifully flocked : I mean from the gentle- 
man-ufher (at leafl) inclufive, downward to the gentle¬ 
man-porter; who are, generally (peaking, the molt infig- 
uificant race of people that -this-ifland can afford, and 
ERS. 
with the final left tincture of good manners, which is the 
only trade they profefs. For, being wholly illiterate, con¬ 
verting chiefly with each other, they reduce the whole 
fyftem of breeding within the forms and circles of their 
federal offices ; and, as they are below the notice of ms- 
nifters, they live and die in court under all revolutions, 
with great obfequioufnefs to thofe who are in any degree 
of credit or favour, and with rudenefs and inlolence to 
every body elfe. From whence I have long concluded, that 
good manners are not a plant of the court growth : for, if 
they were, thofe people, who have underflandings directly 
of a level for fuch acquirements, and who have ferved 
fuch long apprenticefhips to nothing elfe, would certainly 
have picked them up. For, as to the great officers who 
attend the prince’s perfon or councils, or prefide in his fa¬ 
mily, they are a tranfient body, who have no better a title 
to good manners than their neighbours, nor will probably 
have recourfe to gentlemen-ufliers for inltruction. So that 
I know little to be learned at court on this head, except 
in the material circumftance of drefs; wherein the autho¬ 
rity of the maids of honour mull indeed be allowed to be. 
almoft equal to that of a favourite actrefs. 
“I remember a paffhge my lord Bolingbroke told me: 
Going to receive prince Eugene of Savoy at his landing, 
in order to conduct him immediately to the queen, the 
prince faid he was much concerned that he could not fes 
her majeity that night; for monfieur Hoffman (who was 
then by) had affured his highnefs, that he could not he 
admitted into her prefence with a tied-up periwig; that 
his equipage was not arrived.; and that he had endea¬ 
voured in vain to borrow a long one among all his valets 
and pages. My lord turned the matter to a jeft, and 
brought the prince direbUy. to her majefty ; for which lie 
was highly cenfured by the whole tribe of gentlemen- 
ufilers ; among whom monfieur Hoffman, an old dull re T 
fident of the emperor’s, had picked up this material point 
of ceremony ; and which, I believe, was the beft leffon he 
had learned in twenty-five years’ refidence. 
“ I make a difference between good manners and good 
breeding ; although, in order to vary my expreffion, 1 am 
fometimes forced to confound them. By the firfl, I only 
underhand the art of remembering, and applying, certain 
fettled forms of general behaviour. Hut good breeding is 
of a much larger extent : for, befides an uncommon°de~ 
gree of literature, fufficient to qualify a gentleman, for 
reading a play or a political pamphlet, it taketh in a 
great compafs of knowledge ; no lefs than that of danc¬ 
ing, fighting, gaming, making the circle, of Italy, riding 
the great horfe, and (peaking French; not to mention 
fome other fecondary or fubaltern accomplifliments, which 
are more eafily acquired. So that the difference between 
good breeding and good manners lieth in this, That the 
former cannot be attained to by the beft underflandings 
without ltudy and labour ; whereas a tolerable degree of 
reafon will inltruCt us in every part of good manners with- 
out other afliftance. 
“I can think of nothing more ufeful upon this fubjeft, 
tlian to point out fome particulars wherein the very ef- 
fentials of good manners are concerned, the negleft or 
perverting of which doth very milch difturb the good 
c.cmmerCe of the world, by introducing a traffic of a mu¬ 
tual uneafinefs in mod companies. Firfl, A necefiary part 
of good manners is a punctual obfervance of time at our 
own dwellings or thofe of others, or at third places, whe¬ 
ther upon matters of civility, bufinefs, or diverfion ; which 
rule, though.it be a plain dictate of common reafon, yet 
the greatelt mini (ter I ever knew was the greateft tref- 
paffer againft it; by which all his bufinefs doubled upon 
h.im, and placed him in a continual arrear; upon which 
I often uled to rally him as deficient in point of > oid 
manners. I have known more than one ambaffador^and 
fecretary of date, with a very moderate portion of intel¬ 
lectuals, execute their offices with great fuccefs and ap- 
plaule, by the mere force of exaCtneis and regularity, jf 
you duly obferve time lor the fervice ot anotheiy it dou¬ 
bles 
