The New Hampshire Gazette

Of Good Breeding.

The Character of a well bred Man cannot be drawn to
Perfection by any but Dramatick Writers; because
they only have the Power of placing him to Advantage in
particular Circumstances and Relations.
Other Writers must be content with general Descripti-
ons, it being as great a Difficulty to define Good Breeding
in the Abstract, as Moral Virtue, which depend upon Cir-
cumstances, and the Relations in which one Man stands to
another; but like Virtue too, it consists in a happy Me-
diocrity between two Extremes, of which Bluntness is the
one, and fawning servility the other.
A well bred Man hath in his Behaviour an equal Mix-
ture of Modesty and Boldness, of Loquacity and Taciturnity,
of Freedom and Reserve, and of every other Quality, that
Degree which is useful or commendable, but whose Ex-
tremes are either criminal or ridiculous. Such a Man is al-
ways condescending, without falling into the Meanness of
Adoration: He is not backward in professing, but more so-
licitous in doing Acts of Beneficence: He is not scrupulous
of owning his Regard for Merit, and of giving it due Praise.
for Fear of being thought a Flatterer; nor of expressing a
just Dislike of Vice however dignified, to avoid the Imputa-
tion of Rigidity. In Short, all his Actions flow from a
good Heart, and are noble, generous, sincere, uniform and
graceful.
If these Observations be true, Good Breeding is a social
Virtue: It is Benevolence brought into Action with all the
Advantages and Beauty of Proportion and Symmetry.
Compliance is indeed its Resemblance, as a Shadow is of a
Substance; but Compliance is only the Varnish, Good-
Breeding is the real Beauty of the Soul, made visible, and
set in the fairest Point of Light. The only Difference
therefore between the virtuous and the well bred Man is,
that the latter seems to act his Part in Life with a superior
Grace.