just a little stronger with some individuals
than the code of Sinai, and many a man who would not scruple to put
his fingers in your pocket, would forego peas rather than use his
knife as a shovel."

The Great Value of Courtesy.

"Be courteous," is an apostolic command that too many earthly
followers of the Twelve would do well to consider. They are just, they
are truthful, sometimes aggressively so; they are conscientious, they
weary not in well-doing, but--they are not courteous. They are not
good mannered, and by so much as they sin in this regard do they lose
their power to win.

"Good manners," says one, "are more serviceable than a passport, than
a bank account, than a lineage. They make friends for us; they are
more potent than eloquence or genius without them." They add to
beauty, they detract from personal ugliness, they cast a glamour over
defects, in short, they work the miracle of mind over matter
exemplified in the case of the extremely plain Madame de Stael, who
was reputed to "talk herself beautiful in five minutes."

They teach us the beauty of self-sacrifice, they constrain us to
listen, with an appearance of interest to a twice-told tale, they
teach the wife to smile over the somewhat worn jest of the husband, as
she smiled in like fashion in the days of auld lang syne, or, harder
still, they enjoin upon us to follow the Duc de Morny's definition of
a polite man, as "one who listens with interest to things he knows
all about, when they are told by a person who knows nothing about
them."

They impress upon us to guard the feelings of others, they warn us to
avoid the familiarity that breeds contempt, and, above all, they are
contagious!

There is much to be said as to the true definition of those beautiful
but abused terms, lady and gentleman, each with its strong, sweet
meaning.

"A lady is one who, to inbred modesty and refinement, adds a
scrupulous attention to the rights and feelings of others, and applies
the Golden Rule of doing as she would be done by, to all who are
connected with her, both at home and in society."

While a gentleman has been described as: "Whoever is true, loyal and
candid; whoever possesses a pleasing, affable, demeanor; whoever is
honorable in himself and in his judgment of others and requires no law
but his word to make him fulfil all engagements."

Such men and such women are "ladies" and "gentlemen" whether they are
found in the peasant's hut or the prince'