s, either at home or in society, children
should be taught to avoid.

Another branch, under this head, may be called _table manners_. To
persons of good-breeding, nothing is more annoying, than violating the
conventional proprieties of the table. Reaching over another person's
plate; standing up, to reach distant articles, instead of asking to have
them passed; using one's own knife, and spoon, for butter, salt, or
sugar, when it is the custom of the family to provide separate utensils
for the purpose; setting cups, with tea dripping from them, on the
tablecloth, instead of the mats or small plates furnished; using the
tablecloth, instead of the napkins; eating fast, and in a noisy manner;
putting large pieces in the mouth; looking and eating as if very hungry,
or as if anxious to get at certain dishes; sitting at too great a
distance from the table, and dropping food; laying the knife and fork on
the tablecloth, instead of on the bread, or the edge of the plate;--all
these particulars, children should be taught to avoid. It is always
desirable, too, to require children, when at table with grown persons,
to be silent, except when addressed by others; or else their chattering
will interrupt the conversation and comfort of their elders. They should
always be required, too, to wait, _in silence_, till all the older
persons are helped.

All these things should be taught to children, gradually, and with great
patience and gentleness. Some parents, with whom good-manners is a great
object, are in danger of making their children perpetually
uncomfortable, by suddenly surrounding them with so many rules, that
they must inevitably violate some one or other, a great part of the
time. It is much better to begin with a few rules, and be steady and
persevering with these, till a habit is formed, and then take a few
more, thus making the process easy and gradual. Otherwise, the temper of
children will be injured; or, hopeless of fulfilling so many
requisitions, they will become reckless and indifferent to all.

But, in reference to those who have enjoyed advantages for the
cultivation of good-manners, and who duly estimate its importance, one
caution is necessary. Those, who never have had such habits formed in
youth, are under disadvantages, which no benevolence of temper can
remedy. They may often violate the tastes and feelings of others, not
from a want of proper regard for them, but from ignorance of custom, or
want of habit,