- But the flowers were exquisite, and
even in a moralist's eyes, such flowering counts for something. On
the side of civility, good-breeding and deportment, the manners and
customs of high life had reached a degree of perfection, which never,
in France or elsewhere, had been attained before, and which has never
since been revived;[49] and of all the arts through which men have
emancipated themselves from primitive coarseness, that which teaches
them mutual consideration is, perhaps, the most precious. The
observance of this, not alone in the drawing-room, but in the family,
in business, in the street, with regard to relatives, inferiors,
servants and strangers, gives dignity, as well as a charm, to human
intercourse. Delicate regard for what is proper becomes a habit, an
instinct, a second nature, which nature, superimposed on the original
nature, is the best, inasmuch as the internal code which governs each
detail of action and speech, prescribes the standard of behavior and
respect for oneself, as well as respect and refined behavior towards
others. - To this merit, add mental culture. Never was there an
aristocracy so interested in general ideas and refinement of
expression; it was even too much so; literary and philosophical
preoccupation excluded all others of the positive and practical order;
they talked, instead of acting.
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