Name: On habits and manners
Author: M. F. Armstrong

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA^CHAMPAIGN BOOKSTACKS CENTRAL CIRCULATION AND BOOKSTACKS The person borrowing this material is re- sponsible for its renewal or return before the Latest Date stamped below. You may be charged a minimum fee of $75.00 for each non-returned or lost item. Theft, mutilation, or defacement of library materials can be causes for student disciplinary action. Ail materials owned by the University of Illinois Library are the property of the State of Illinois and are protected by Article 16B of tllinoit Criminal Law and Procedure. TO RENEW, CALL (217) 333-8400. University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign When renewing by phone, write new due date below previous due date. L162 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/onhabitsmannersOOarms ON HABITS ^ MANNERS, BY 4 Mrs. M. F. ARMSTRONG. Written originally for the Students of tie Hampton N. and A. Institute. REVISED EDITION. ADAPTED TO GENERAL USE. HAMPTON, VA. NORMAL SCHOOL TRESS, PRINT. 1888. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 18881 1 §. C. ARMSTRONG, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress. PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION. Hampton, Va., July, 1888. The revision of this little book is a result of the suggestions of teachers who for the past ten years have been using it in their class rooms. The scope of the subject is such that it is impossible to deal with it satisfactorily within the limits of a text book, and we only claim for our present work that it is an embodiment, so far as we can make it so, of a general experience of the needs of our students. We have endeavored to make it constructive rather than critical, and we ask those who may use it, either as teacher or pupil, to re- member that it is not safe to adopt the manners of any individual as a standard, for even the most careful are liable to lapses, and it is al- ways the general law which should be regarded, rather than the spec- ial instance. Finally, most of us need to be reminded that picking flaws in other peoples' manners, does not help to mend our own, and that now and always, here and everywhere, it is only a gentle soul which can give us the best part of gentle breeding. M F. A. PREFACE. To be truly a gentleman or lady, in the best and broadest mean- ing of the words, is to be something more than most of us think of when we apply the terms in a general way, or as a mere class distinc- tion. It is not to those who are rich; it is not to those to whom the accident of birth may have given special advantages; it is not even to those who are educated, or who claim the title for themselves, that the name " gentleman " or " lady " rightfully belongs ; and as, with very few exceptions, we all desire to win this honor for ourselves, our first need is to make sure that we know just what we want — that we know what it is that is really meant by the words so frequently upon our lips. Long ago one of the old English poets wrote this beautiful de- scription of our Saviour : *' A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit, The first true gentleman that ever breathed."

AI-modernized reading of the original text

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA^CHAMPAIGN BOOKSTACKS The person borrowing this material is responsible for its renewal or return before the Latest Date stamped below. You may be charged a minimum fee of $75.00 for each non-returned or lost item. Theft, mutilation, or defacement of library materials can be causes for student disciplinary action. Ail materials owned by the University of Illinois Library are the property of the State of Illinois and are protected by Article 16B of Illinois Criminal Law and Procedure. TO RENEW, CALL (217) 333-8400. University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign When renewing by phone, write new due date below previous due date. L162 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/onhabitsmannersOOarms ON HABITS AND MANNERS, BY Mrs. M. F. ARMSTRONG. Written originally for the Students of the Hampton N. and A. Institute. REVISED EDITION. ADAPTED TO GENERAL USE. HAMPTON, VA. NORMAL SCHOOL TRESS, PRINT. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1888, by S. C. ARMSTRONG, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress. PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION. Hampton, Va., July, 1888. The revision of this little book is a result of the suggestions of teachers who for the past ten years have been using it in their class rooms. The scope of the subject is such that it is impossible to deal with it satisfactorily within the limits of a text book, and we only claim for our present work that it is an embodiment, so far as we can make it so, of a general experience of the needs of our students. We have endeavored to make it constructive rather than critical, and we ask those who may use it, either as teacher or pupil, to remember that it is not safe to adopt the manners of any individual as a standard, for even the most careful are liable to lapses, and it is always the general law which should be regarded, rather than the special instance. Finally, most of us need to be reminded that picking flaws in other peoples' manners, does not help to mend our own, and that now and always, here and everywhere, it is only a gentle soul which can give us the best part of gentle breeding. M F. A. PREFACE. To be truly a gentleman or lady, in the best and broadest meaning of the words, is to be something more than most of us think of when we apply the terms in a general way, or as a mere class distinction. It is not to those who are rich; it is not to those to whom the accident of birth may have given special advantages; it is not even to those who are educated, or who claim the title for themselves, that the name " gentleman " or " lady " rightfully belongs ; and as, with very few exceptions, we all desire to win this honor for ourselves, our first need is to make sure that we know just what we want — that we know what it is that is really meant by the words so frequently upon our lips. Long ago one of the old English poets wrote this beautiful description of our Saviour : *' A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit, The first true gentleman that ever breathed."