VI.
THE OBSERVANCES OF EVERY-DAY LIFE.
Good manners are the settled medium of social, as specie is of commercial life: returns are equally expected in both; and people will no more advance their civility to a bear, than their money to a bankrupt.—Chesterfield.
I.—A PRELIMINARY REMARK.
n going out into the great world which lies outside of home we have no new principles to lay down for your guidance. Those we have set forth and illustrated in previous chapters are of universal application and meet all contingencies. We shall now essay a brief exposition of the established laws of etiquette, leaving each reader to judge for himself how far he can and ought to conform to them, and what modifications they require to adapt them to a change of time, place, and circumstances.
II.—INTRODUCTIONS.
It is neither necessary nor desirable to introduce everybody to everybody; and the promiscuous presentations sometimes inflicted upon us are anything but agreeable. You confer no favor on us, and only a nominal one on the person presented, by making us acquainted with one whom we do not desire to know; and you may inflict a positive injury upon both. Yon also put yourself in an unpleasant position; for "an introduction is a social indorsement," and yell become to a certain extent responsible for the person you introduce. If he disgraces himself in any way you share, in a greater or less degree, in his disgrace. Be as cautious in this matter as you would in writing your name on the back of another man's note.