is often committed from mere good nature and a desire to be affable.  But it betrays to a gentleman, ignorance of the world—­to a philosopher, ignorance of human nature.  The one considers that “Tous les hommes sont ,gaux devant la politesse:”  the other remembers that though it may be agreeable to be patronised and assisted, yet it is still more agreeable to be treated as if you needed no patronage, and were above assistance.

Sir Joshua Reynolds once received from two noblemen invitations to visit them on Sunday morning.  The first, whom he waited upon, welcomed him with the most obsequious condescension, treated him with all the attention in the world, professed that he was so desirous of seeing him, that he had mentioned Sunday as the time for his visit, supposing him to be too much engaged during the week, to spare time enough for the purpose, concluded his compliments by an eulogy on painting, and smiled him affectionately to the door.  Sir Joshua left him, to call upon the other.  That one received him with respectful civility, and behaved to him as he would have behaved to an equal in the peerage:—­said nothing about Raphael nor Correggio, but conversed with ease about literature and men.  This nobleman was the Earl of Chesterfield.  Sir Joshua felt, that though the one had said that he respected him, the other had proved that he did, and went away from this one gratified rather than from the first.  Reader, there is wisdom in this anecdote.  Mark, learn, and inwardly digest it:  and let this be the moral which you deduce,—­that there is distinction in society, but that there are no distinctions.

The great business in company is conversation.  It should be studied as art.  Style in conversation is as important, and as capable of cultivation as style in writing.  The manner of saying things is what gives them their value.

The most important requisite for succeeding here, is constant and unfaltering attention.  That which Churchill has noted as the greatest virtue on the stage, is also the most necessary in company,—­to be “always attentive to the business of the scene.”  Your understanding should, like your person, be armed at all points.  Never go into society with your mind en deshabille. It is fatal to success to be all absent or distrait. The secret of conversation has been said to consist in building upon the remark of your companion.  Men of the strongest minds, who have solitary habits and bookish dispositions, rarely excel in sprightly colloquy, because they seize upon the thing itself,—­the subject abstractly,- -instead of attending to the language of other speakers, and do not cultivate verbal pleasantries and refinements.  He who does otherwise gains a reputation for quickness, and pleases by showing that he has regarded the observation of others.