le,
making a noise with our feet, and such like, are all breaches of good
manners, and indications of our contempt for the persons present;
therefore they should hot be indulged.

Walking fast in the streets is a mark of vulgarity, implying hurry of
business; it may appear well in a mechanic or tradesman, but suits ill
with the character of a gentleman or a man of fashion.

Staring any person you meet, full in the face, is an act also of
ill-breeding; it looks as if you saw something wonderful in his
appearance, and is, therefore, a tacit reprehension.

34. Eating quick, or very slow, at meals, is characteristic of the
vulgar; the first infers poverty, that you have not had a good meal for
some time; the last, if abroad, that you dislike your entertainment; if
at home, that you are rude enough to set before your friends, what you
cannot eat yourself. So again, eating your soups with your nose in the
plate, is vulgar; it has the appearance of being used to hard work; and
of course an unsteady hand.

_Dignity of Manners_.

1. A certain dignity of manners is absolutely necessary, to make even
the most-valuable character either respected or respectable in the
world.

Horse-play, romping, frequent and loud fits of laughter, jokes, waggery,
and indiscriminate familiarity, will sink both merit and knowledge into
a degree of contempt. They compose at most a merry fellow, and a merry
fellow was never yet a respectable man. Indiscriminate familiarity
either offends your superiors, or else dubs you their dependent and led
captain. It gives your inferiors just, but troublesome and improper
claims to equality. A joker is near a-kin to a buffoon; and neither of
them is the least related to wit.

2. Mimicry, the favorite amusement of little minds, has been ever the
contempt of great ones. Never give way to it yourself, nor ever
encourage it in others; it is the most illiberal of all buffoonery; it
is an insult on the person you mimic; and insults, I have often told
you, are seldom forgiven.

As to a mimic or a wag, he is little else than a buffoon, who will
distort his mouth and his eyes to make people laugh. Be assured, no one
person ever demeaned himself to please the rest, unless he wished to be
thought the Merry-Andrew of the company, and whether this character is
respectable, I will leave you to judge.

3. If a man's company is coveted on any other account than his
knowledge, his good sense, or his manners, he