Burlington Free Press

POLITENESS.

Were I to search for unadulterated politeness, I would pass by all the coined affectation of modern schools; the parlors of the great, and glance at a few sketches of the ancient Bible days. I would witness the strife between the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot, and the dispute amicably adjusted by this simple sentence, "If thou will take the left hand, then I will go to the right," &c. I would sit down in the assembly of Abraham and the children of Heth; when Abraham rose up and bowed before them and asked for a sepulchre to bury his beloved Sarah out of his sight. I would listen to their answer, 'none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre.' I would hear him offering money and Ephron saying. 'Nay, my lord hear me; the field I give thee,' and then receiving the money upon the earnest solicitation to spare the feelings of obligation. I would stand by the well of wandering Laban, while Rebecca hastened and let down her pitcher and drew water for his camels to drink. I would go in the time of barley harvest, into the field of Boaz, and hear him charge the reapers to let the damsel, Ruth, glean among the sheaves, and drop a handful by design and rebuke her not.

Who can read these unadorned narratives without wishing the spirit of those days to return, when the stuffed fowl and the Christmas cake shall be offered as unostentatiously as the fattened calf and unleavened bread of Abraham and Sarah—when proffers of kindness shall mean kindness—when a promise shall mean something but a betraying into the hands of enemies: when our daughters shall be taught that the lowest seat when 'bidden to a feast,' and a 'rising up before the hoary headed,' savor more of true politeness than a graceful courtesy, or gilt edged card to a modern dinner party." The time is coming when truth shall stand before us, disrobed of all her tinsel, 'unadorned and plain,' in all her native majesty—then we shall see things as they are, and custom have no demand for affected sincerity.