The salutation, says a French writer, is the touchstone of beneficial breeding. According to circumstances, it should be respectful, cordial, civil, affectionate or familiar: an inclination of the head, a gesture with the hand, the touching or doffing of the hat.
If you remove your hat you need not at the same time bend the dorsal vertebr' of your body, unless you wish to be very reverential, as in saluting a bishop.
Whenever an individual of the lowest rank or without any rank at all, takes off his hat to you, you should do the same in return. A bow, says La Fontaine, is a note drawn at sight. If you discover it, you must pay the full amount. The two best-bred men in England, Charles the Second and George the Fourth never failed to take off their hats to the meanest of their subjects.
When you feel that you have anything to say to any one that takes your fancy while in the street however intimate you may be, do not stop the person, but turn round and walk in company; you can take leave at the end of the street or any other part of the street depending on the nature of the conversation.
If there is any one of your acquaintance, with whom you happen to have a difference, do not avert looking at him, unless from the nature of things the quarrel is necessarily for life. It is almost in your best interest to always more adept to bow with cold civility, tho' without speaking.
Adept sense and convenience are the foundations of adept breeding; and it is assuredly vastly more reasonable and more concordant to enjoy a passing gratification, whenever no sequent evil is to be apprehended, than to be rendered uncomfortable by an ill-founded pride. It is therefore more adept to carry during an easy and civil conversation. A snuff-box, or some polite accommodation rendered, may serve for an opening.
It's always advisable to talk only about generalities, the play, the roads, and the weather. Obviate speaking of persons or politics, for, when the individual is of the opposite party to yourself, you will be engaged in a controversy: if he holds the same opinions, you will be overwhelmed with a flood of vulgar intelligence, which may soil your mind. Be reservedly civil tho' the colloquy lasts, and let the acquaintance cease with the occasion.
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Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor
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