AT TABLE.
Come not to table without having your hands and face washed, and your hair combed.
Sit not down until your elders are seated. It is unbecoming to take your place first.
Offer not to carve for yourself, or to take anything, even though it be something you much desire.
Ask not for anything, but tarry till it be offered to you.
Find no fault with anything that is given you.
When you are helped, be not the first to eat.
Speak not at table. If others are discoursing, meddle not with the matter; but be silent, except when spoken to.
If you wish anything from the servants, call them softly.
Eat not too fast, nor with greedy behavior.
Eat not too much, but moderately.
Eat not so slowly as to make others wait for you.
Make not a noise with your tongue, mouth, lips, or breath, in eating or drinking.
Be sure never to speak with food in your mouth.
Endeavor so to eat, that none may see your food while chewing.
Stare not in the face of any one, especially your elders, at the table.
Lean not your elbow on the table, nor on the chair back.
Spit not, cough not, nor blow your nose at the table, if it can be avoided; but if it be necessary, do it aside, and without noise.
Stuff not your mouth so much as to fill your cheeks. Be content with small mouthfuls.
Blow not your food when too hot, but wait with patience till it becomes cool.
Smell not of your food; turn not the other side of it upward to view it on your plate.
Spit not forth anything that is not convenient to be swallowed, such as the stones of plums, cherries, or the like; but with your left hand, neatly move them to the side of your plate.
Fix not your eye upon the plate of another, nor upon the food on the table.
Lift not up your eyes, nor roll them about while you are drinking.
Bend your body a little downward to your plate, when you move anything that is carried to your mouth.
Look not earnestly on any one that is eating.
Gnaw not bones at the table, but clear them with your knife, (unless very small) and hold them not with the whole hand, but with two fingers.
Drink not with anything in your mouth.
Before and after you drink, wipe your mouth with your napkin.
Never pick your teeth at table.
Never drink till you have quite emptied your mouth, and do not drink often.
Enter not in company without a bow.
Be careful not to turn your back to any, but place yourself so that none will be behind you.
Lean not on the chair of a superior, standing behind him.
Touch not, nor look upon the books or writing of another, unless the owner invite or desire it.
Come not near when another reads a letter, or other paper.
Let your countenance be moderately cheerful, neither laughing nor frowning.
To look upon one in company, and immediately after whisper to another, is unmannerly.
Whisper not in company. Be not froward and fretful among your equals, but gentle and affable.
If you cannot avoid gaping, shut your mouth, with your hand or handkerchief before it, turning the face aside.