FOOTNOTES: 

[1] The Decimal System; as applied to the Coinage and Weights and Measures of Great Britain.  Groombridge and Sons:  1851.

WHY THE SCOTCH DO NOT SHUT THE DOOR.

Nations have curious and almost unaccountable peculiarities.  One interlards conversation with shrugs, and another with expectoration; and a third, by way of indicating satisfaction, rubs its hands.  The Scotch have a peculiarity of their own.  When they quit a room, they do not shut the door, but merely draw it gently after them, so as to leave it unlatched.  Some individuals may not be strictly attached to this practice; but on the whole the Scotch may, for the sake of distinction, be said to be an anti-door-shutting nation.  Now, why such should be the case, becomes an interesting philosophical problem.

Much consideration have we spent in pondering on this national oddity, and are free to admit that the conclusions arrived at are not so satisfactory as could be wished.  Nevertheless, in default of any better explanation of the phenomenon, what we have to say may possibly carry a degree of weight.

The reason why the Scotch do not shut the door is, as we imagine, highly characteristic.  It is not that they are ignorant of the important fact, that doors are made for shutting.  They are fully aware that latches are not mere ornamental attributes of doors—­things stuck on not to be used.  And it cannot be imputed to them, that they leave doors open for the sake of ventilation.  In short, if strangers were to guess for a hundred years, they would fail to hit upon the real, true, and particular reason why the Scotch do not shut the door.  One would naturally think, that as the act of shutting the door is the prerogative of the person who quits an apartment, it would not by so mindful a people be neglected.  And neither it is.  There is no neglect in the matter.  The Scotch take a profound view of the subject.  They institute a rigorous comparison between shutting and not shutting.  True, they are not taught to do so, any more than Frenchmen are taught to make gestures.  It is in them.  They are born with a natural proneness to consider, as if it were a question of algebraic quantities, whether the satisfaction they might impart by shutting the door would not be more than counterbalanced by the dissatisfaction that might accrue from distinctly and unmistakably shutting it.  Still, it seems strange how any displeasure could be incurred by the performance of what all the rest of mankind believe to be a mark of good-breeding.  Strange, indeed!  But it surely will be observed, that much depends on making a principle of a thing.  And with respect to good-breeding, what if it can be placed in a double point of sight?  It may be the etiquette in some countries to shut the door; but that proves nothing.  In Europe, men uncover their heads on entering the