Unchanging Attitudes

Daily Dose

From Domestic Manners of the Americans, by Frances Trollope

IF

"If it was a female, she took off her hat; if a male, he kept it on, and then taking possession of the first chair in their way, they would retain it for an hour together, without uttering another word; at length, rising abruptly, they would again shake hands, with 'Well, now I must be going, I guess,' and so take themselves off, apparently well contented with their reception."

From Chapter X

Daily Dose

From Orlando, by Virginia Woolf

IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE

"The graces were supreme.  Fathers taught their sons, mothers their daughters.  No education was complete for either sex which did not include the science of deportment, the art of bowing and curtseying, the management of the sword and the fan, the care of the teeth, the conduct of the leg, the flexibility of the knee, the proper methods of entering and leaving the room, with a thousand etceteras, such as will immediately suggest themselves to anybody who has himself been in society."

From Chapter 4

Noble Manners

Daily Dose

From The Rambler, by Samuel Johnson

ONCE

"When once the forms of civility are violated, there remains little hope of return to kindness or decency."

From Rambler #55, September 25, 1750