A bachelor is a person who enjoys everything and pays for nothing; a married man is one that pays for everything and enjoys nothing. The one drives a sulky through life, and is not expected to take care of any one but himself: the other keeps a carriage, which is always too full to afford him a comfortable seat. Be cautious then how you exchange your sulky for a carriage.
In ordinary conversation about persons employ the expressions men and women; gentleman and lady are distinctive appellations, and not to be used upon general occasions.
You should say forte-piano, not piano-forte: and the street door, not the front door.
“A man may have virtue, capacity, and good conduct,” says La Bruyère, “and yet be insupportable; the air and manner which we neglect, as little things, are frequently what the world judges us by, and makes them decide for or against us.”
In your intercourse with the world you must take persons as they are, and society as you find it. You must never oppose the one, nor attempt to alter the other. Society is a harlequin stage, upon which you never appear in your own dress nor without a mask. Keep your real dispositions for your fireside, and your real character for your private friend. In public, never differ from anybody, nor from anything. The agreeable man is one who agrees.
THE END.