9.  DO BUSINESS IN YOUR WAY AND BE HONEST.—­Do your business in your own way, and concede to every man the privilege which you claim for yourself.  The more you mix with men, the less you will be disposed to quarrel, and the more charitable and liberal will you become.  The fact that you do not understand a man, is quite as likely to be your fault as his.  There are a good many chances in favor of the conclusion that, if you fail to like an individual whose acquaintance you make it is through your own ignorance and illiberality.  So I say, meet every man honestly; seek to know him; and you will find that in those points in which he differs from you rests his power to instruct you, enlarge you, and do you good.  Keep your heart open for everybody, and be sure that you shall have your reward.  You shall find a jewel under the most uncouth exterior; and associated with homeliest manners and oddest ways and ugliest faces, you will find rare virtues, fragrant little humanities, and inspiring heroisms.

10.  WITHOUT SOCIETY, WITHOUT INFLUENCE.—­Again:  you can have no influence unless you are social.  An unsocial man is as devoid of influence as an ice-peak is of verdure.  It is through social contact and absolute social value alone that you can accomplish any great social good.  It is through the invisible lines which you are able to attach to the minds with which you are brought into association alone that you can tow society, with its deeply freighted interests, to the great haven of your hope.

11.  THE REVENGE OF SOCIETY.—­The revenge which society takes upon the man who isolates himself, is as terrible as it is inevitable.  The pride which sits alone will have the privilege of sitting alone in its sublime disgust till it drops into the grave.  The world sweeps by the man, carelessly, remorselessly, contemptuously.  He has no hold upon society, because he is no part of it.

12.  THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER.—­You cannot move men until you are one of them.  They will not follow you until they have heard your voice, shaken your hand, and fully learned your principles and your sympathies.  It makes no difference how much you know, or how much you are capable of doing.  You may pile accomplishment upon acquisition mountain high; but if you fail to be a social man, demonstrating to society that your lot is with the rest, a little child with a song in its mouth, and a kiss for all and a pair of innocent hands to lay upon the knees, shall lead more hearts and change the direction of more lives than you.

[Illustration:  GATHERING ORANGES IN THE SUNNY SOUTH.]

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POLITENESS.

1.  BEAUTIFUL BEHAVIOR.—­Politeness has been described as the art of showing, by external signs, the internal regard we have for others.  But one may be perfectly polite to another without necessarily paying a special regard for him.  Good manners are neither more nor less than beautiful behavior.  It has been well said that “a beautiful form is better than a beautiful face, and a beautiful behavior is better than a beautiful form; it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures—­it is the finest of the fine arts.”