arising from it. For my own part, I really think that, next to the consciousness of doing a good action, that of doing a civil one is the most pleasing; and the epithet which I should covet the most, next to that of Aristides, would be that of well-bred. [Same date.]
Mixed Company—Learning—Pedants.—In
mixed companies, whoever is admitted to make part
of them is, for the time at least, supposed to be upon
a footing of equality with the rest; and, consequently,
as there is no one principal object of awe
and respect, people are apt to take a greater latitude
in their behavior, and to be less upon their guard;
and so they may, provided it be within certain
bounds, which are upon no occasion to be transgressed.
But, upon these occasions, though no one
is entitled to distinguished marks of respect, every
one claims, and very justly, every mark of civility
and good-breeding. Ease is allowed, but carelessness
and negligence are strictly forbidden. If a
man accosts you, and talks to you ever so dully or
frivolously, it is worse than rudeness, it is brutality,
to show him, by a manifest inattention to what he
says, that you think him a fool or a blockhead, and
not worth hearing. It is much more so with regard
to women; who, of whatever rank they are, are
