The man who gets up and offers his chair
to a woman, or to an old man--trivial though the act may seem,--is
rewarded by his own heart, and a thrill of pleasure runs through him the
moment he has performed the kindness.
Workpeople need to practise good manners towards each other the more,
because they are under the necessity of constantly living with each
other and amongst each other. They are in constant contact with their
fellow-workmen, whereas the richer classes need not mix with men unless
they choose, and then they can select whom they like. The working man's
happiness depends much more upon the kind looks, words, and acts of
those immediately about him, than the rich man's does. It is so in the
workshop, and it is the same at home. There the workman cannot retire
into his study, but must sit amongst his family, by the side of his
wife, with his children about him. And he must either live kindly with
them--performing kind and obliging acts towards his family,--or he must
see, suffer, and endure the intolerable misery of reciprocal unkindness.
Admitted that there are difficulties in the way of working men
cultivating the art of good manners--that their circumstances are often
very limited, and their position unfavourable, yet no man is so poor but
that he can be civil and kind, if he choose; and to be civil and kind is
the very essence of good manners.
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