Manners | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 13, 1866

Manners.

“I MAKE it a point of morality,” says a writer, “never to find fault with another for his manners. They may be awkward or graceful, blunt or polite, polished or rustic; I care not what they are, if the man only means well, and acts from honest intentions, without eccentricity or affectation. All men have not the advantage of 'good society,' as it is called, to school themselves in all its fantastic rules and ceremonies; and if there is any standard of manners, it is well founded on reason and good sense, and not upon artificial regulations. Manners, like conversation, are extemporaneous, and not studied. I suspect a man who meets me with the same perpetual smile on his face, the same bending of the body, and the same premeditated shake of the hand. Give me the hearty—it may be rough—grip of the hand, and careless nod of recognition, and when occasion requires, the homely, but welcome, salutation—'How are you, old friend?'”