generation to generation in any portion of the community. I do not see
why neatness, courtesy, delicacy, ease, and deference to others'
feelings, may not be made the habits of the laboring multitude. A
change is certainly going on among them in respect to manners. Let us
hope that it will be a change for the better; that they will not adopt
false notions of refinement; that they will escape the servile
imitation of what is hollow and insincere, and the substitution of
outward shows for genuine natural courtesy. Unhappily they have but
imperfect models on which to form themselves. It is not one class
alone which needs reform in manners. We all need a new social
intercourse, which shall breathe genuine refinement; which shall unite
the two great elements of politeness, self-respect, and a delicate
regard to the rights and feelings of others; which shall be free
without rudeness, and earnest without positiveness; which shall be
graceful, yet warm-hearted; and in which communication shall be frank,
unlabored, overflowing, through the absence of all assumption and
pretence, and through the consciousness of being safe from heartless
ridicule. This grand reform, which I trust is to come, will bring with
it a happiness little known in social life; and whence shall it come?
The wise and disinterested of all conditions must contribute to it; and
I see not why the laboring classes may not take part in the work.
Indeed, when I consider the greater simplicity of their lives and their
greater openness to the spirit of Christianity, I am not sure but that
the "golden age" of manners is to begin among those who are now
despaired of for their want of refinement.

In these remarks, I have given the name of "prejudices" to the old
opinions respecting rank, and respecting the need of keeping the people
from much thought. But allow these opinions to have a foundation in
truth; suppose high fences of rank to be necessary to refinement of
manners; suppose that the happiest of all ages were the feudal, when
aristocracy was in its flower and glory, when the noble, superior to
the laws, committed more murders in one year than the multitude in
twenty. Suppose it best for the laborer to live and die in thoughtless
ignorance. Allow all this, and that we have reason to look with envy
on the past; one thing is plain, the past is gone, the feudal castle is
dismantled, the distance between classes greatly reduced. Unfortunate
as it may be,