V. REQUISITES OF GOOD SOCIETY.

HE first indispensable requisite for good society is education. By this is not meant the so-called "finished education" of a university or a boarding-school. I think it will be found that these establishments put their "finish" somewhere in the middle of the course. They may possibly finish you as far as teachers can; but the education which is to fit you for good society must be pursued long after you leave them, as it ought to have been begun long before you went to them.

This education should have commenced with developing the mental powers, and especially the comprehension.

In order to enter into conversation, one should be able to catch rapidly the meaning of any thing that is advanced; for instance, though you know nothing of science, you should not be obliged to stare and be silent when some one who does understand it is explaining a new discovery or a new theory; though you have not read a word of Blackstone, your comprehensive powers should be sufficiently acute to enable you to take in statements that may be made of a recent legal cause; though you may not have read some particular book, you should be capable of appreciating the criticism which you hear of it.

Without such a power, - simple enough, and easily

attained by reading, attention, and practice, yet too seldom met with in general society, a conversation which departs from the most ordinary topics cannot be maintained without the risk of lapsing into a lecture; with such a power, society becomes instructive as well as amusing, and you have no remorse at an evening's end at having wasted three or four hours in profitless banter or simpering platitudes.

This facility of comprehension often startles us in some women whose education we know to have been scanty, and whose reading is limited.

Married women are usually more agreeable to men of thought than young ladies, because the married are accustomed to the society of a husband, and the effort to be a companion to his mind has ingrafted the habit of attention and ready reply.

No less important is the cultivation of taste. If it is tiresome and deadening to be with people who cannot understand, and will not even appear to be interested in, your better thoughts, it is almost repulsive to find a man, still more a woman, insensible to all beauty, and immovable by any horror.

In the present day, an acquaintance with art, even if you have no love for it, is a sine quâ non of good society. Music and painting are subjects which will be discussed in every direction around you.

Warm arguments should be avoided in good society. A disputation is always dangerous to temper, and tedious

to those who cannot feel as eager as the disputants: a discussion, on the other hand, in which everybody has a chance of stating amicably and unobtrusively his or her opinion, must be of frequent occurrence.

But to cultivate the reason, besides its high moral value, has the advantage of enabling one to reply as well as attend to the opinions of others.

Nothing is more tedious or disheartening than a perpetual "Yes," "Just so," and nothing more.

Conversation must never be one-sided. Then, again, the reason enables us to support a fancy or opinion when we are asked why we think so and so. To reply, "I don't know, but still I think so," is silly in a man, and tedious in a woman.

But there is a part of our education so important, and so neglected in our schools and colleges, that it cannot be too highly impressed on parents on the one hand, and young people on the other. I mean that which we learn first of all things, yet often have not learned fully when death eases us of the necessity,—the art of speaking our own language. What can Greek and Latin, French and German, be for us in our every-day life, if we have not acquired our own language.

Precision and accuracy must begin in the very outset; and, if we neglect them in grammar, we shall scarcely acquire them in expressing our thoughts. But since there is no society without interchange of thought, and since the best society is that in which the best thoughts

are interchanged in the best and most comprehensible manner, it follows that a proper mode of expressing ourselves is indispensable to good society. This art of expressing one's thoughts neatly and suitably is one which, in the neglect of rhetoric as a study, we must practise for ourselves.

The commonest thought well put is more useful in a social point of view than the most brilliant idea jumbled up. What is well expressed is easily seized, and therefore readily responded to. The most poetic fancy may be lost to the hearer if the language which conveys it is obscure.

Speech is the gift which distinguishes man from animals, and makes society possible. He has but a poor appreciation of his high privilege as a human being, who neglects to cultivate "God's great gift of speech."

A knowledge of English literature is also an indispensable part of education. But how to read, is, for society, more important than what we read.

It is only in bad society that people go to the opera, concerts, and art-exhibitions, merely because it is the fashion, or to say they have been there. For this, too, some book-knowledge is indispensable. You should at least know the names of the more celebrated artists, composers, architects, sculptors, and should be able to appreciate, somewhat, their several schools.

So, too, you should know pretty accurately the pronunciation of celebrated names, or, if not, take care never to use them.

Persons who take up nothing but a newspaper, but read it to think, to deduce conclusions from its premises, and form a judgment on its opinions, are more fitted for society than those who read volumes without digesting them.

At the same time, an acquaintance with the best current literature is necessary to modern society; and it is not sufficient to have read a book without being able to pass a judgment upon it. Conversation on literature is impossible when your respondent can only say, "Yes, I like the book; but I really don't know why."

A knowledge of old English literature is not, perhaps, always needed; but it gives great advantage in all kinds of society, and in some is indispensable. The same may be said of foreign literature, which, in the present day, is almost as much discussed as our own on the other hand, an acquaintance with home and foreign politics, with current history, and every subject of passing interest, is absolutely necessary; and a person of sufficient intelligence to join in good society cannot dispense with the daily newspaper, the literary journal, and principal reviews and magazines.

Respect for moral character is also a distinguishing mark of good society. No wealth, no celebrity, no distinction of any kind, should induce a well-bred American lady to admit to her drawing-room a man or woman whose character is known to be bad.