4.  When his tea or coffee is handed to him, he spreads his handkerchief upon his knee, scalds his mouth, drops either the cup or the saucer, and spills the tea or coffee in his lap.  At dinner he is more uncommonly aukward:  there he tucks his napkin through a button-hole, which tickles his chin, and occasions him to make a variety of wry faces; he seats himself on the edge of the chair, at so great a distance from the table, that he frequently drops his meat between his plate and his mouth; he holds his knife, fork and spoon different from other people; eats with his knife, to the manifest danger of his mouth; picks his teeth with his fork, rakes his mouth with his finger, and puts his spoon, which has been in his throat a dozen times, into the dish again.

5.  If he is to carve he cannot hit the joint, but in labouring to cut through the bone, splashes the sauce over every body’s clothes.  He generally daubs himself all over, his elbows are in the next person’s plate, and he is up to the knuckles in soup and grease.  If he drinks, it is with his mouth full, interrupting the whole company with, “to your good health, Sir,” and “my service to you;” perhaps coughs in his glass, and besprinkles the whole table.  Further, he has perhaps a number of disagreeable tricks; he snuffs up his nose, picks it with his fingers, blows it; and looks in his handkerchief, crams his hands first in his bosom, and next in his breeches.

6.  In short, he neither dresses nor acts like any other but is particularly aukward in every thing he does.  All this, I own, has nothing in it criminal; but it is such an offence to good manners and good-breeding that it is universally despised; it makes a man ridiculous in every company, and, of course, ought carefully to be avoided by every one who would wish to please.

7.  From this picture of the ill-bred man, you will easily discover that of the well-bred; for you may readily judge what you ought to do, when you are told what you ought not to do; a little attention to the manners of those who have seen the world, will make a proper behaviour habitual and familiar to you.

8.  Actions, that would otherwise be pleasing, frequently become ridiculous by your manner of doing-them.  If a lady drops her fan in company, the worst bred man would immediately pick it up, and give it to her; the best bred man can do no more; but then he does it in a graceful manner, which is sure to please; whereas the other would do it so aukwardly as to be laughed at.

9.  You may also know a well-bred person by his manner of sitting.  Ashamed and confused, the aukward man sits in his chair stiff and bolt upright, whereas the man of fashion is easy in every position; instead of lolling or lounging as he sits, he leans with elegance, and by varying his attitudes, shews that he has been used to good company.  Let it be one part of your study, then, to learn to set genteely in different companies, to loll gracefully, where you are authorised to take that liberty, and to set up respectfully, where that freedom is not allowable.