CONTENT AND COURTESY.
The first ambition of mankind is to be happy. To the brute creation, and
to man in a state of nature, happiness consists in sensual gratification.
To this, succeeds the factitious happiness of civilization; whence the
origin of a variety of popular errors and prejudices. From the days of
Horace to our own, people have been prone to envy those who pursue any
career but their own. But if the soldier envy the position of the
civilian, and _vice versâ_, it is clear that the ambition of being what
one is not, arises from the fact that every one is acquainted with the
drawback on his own profession, and only appreciates the advantages of
that to which he does not belong. La Fontaine never imagined anything more
true, or more charming, than the fable of the cobbler entreating the
financier to restore him his song and peaceful sleep, in exchange for the
hundred crowns he had bestowed upon him. Every one has heard the Persian
apologue of the Sophi, to whom, in a fit of acute suffering, the sole
remedy prescribed was the shirt of a happy man; a treasure difficult to
discover either in Court or city; till at length a ragged wretch was found
in the suburbs of Ispahan, who admitted himself to be perfectly happy; but
alas! he had not a shirt to his back; and the cure of the Sophi was not
more advanced than before.
History has its lessons on this head as well as fiction. The Comte de
Ségur relates in his Memoirs, that previous to the Revolution, the Duke de
Lauraguais wrote to him as follows:
"Congratulate me, my dear Ségur. Thanks be to Heaven, I am completely
ruined! I have nothing left, but am delivered from the importunities of my
creditors."
Towards the termination of his career, this witty nobleman subsided into
voluntary habits of simplicity, differing strangely from his past
splendours. Never, however, had he been happier!--His peace of mind was
from within; superior to all incidents of birth, position, and fortune.
It requires to have inhabited the various stories of the social edifice,
to be able to judge man under the various aspects resulting from fortune
and station. Happiness has little to do with either; fortune and
misfortune have alike their evil influences. Covetousness is as insatiable
as ambition. In proportion as people scale the ladder of opulence, they
discover others richer than themselves to excite their envy; and vanity
pervades every rank of society, marring the quietude of the human mind.
The laurels of Miltiades gave umbrage to Themistocles; and Cæsar declared
that he would rather be the first of a village, than second in Rome. A
wiser man was the shepherd who said: "Were I a King, I would keep my sheep
on horseback."
The ceremonies of politeness, when carried to excess, are a source of
public inconvenience. The custom of addressing a lady bare-headed, as was
the case in France a century ago, when Louis XIV., even in a shower,
refused to put on his hat in the presence of females, was the cause of
many a serious indisposition. The custom of appearing bare-headed in
church is also dangerous to many; and, so far unreasonable, that men are
unable to appear in hats, while it would be accounted singular for a woman
to appear there without a bonnet. Can any reasonable motive be assigned
for such a distinction?
Again, what is the origin of the ridicule attached to a person who is
left-handed? It is clear that some are born with an instinctive facility
in the use of the right hand--some of the left. Yet mothers punish their
children for using the left hand, as an act of awkwardness. The preference
given to the use of the right hand, though existing from the times of
antiquity, is not the less ridiculous.
In Holy Writ, the right hand is made an instrument of benediction; which
probably conferred a superiority over the left. Theologians also contend
that the Son of God sat on the right of the heavenly throne. The Romans
conceded such superiority to the right hand, that when at table, they lay
on the left side that the right hand might be free. Aristotle maintained
that the pre-eminence of the right hand proceeded from the same
conformation by which the cray-fish have the right claw larger than the
left. Politeness in these days requires we should place the person we wish
to distinguish, on the right. The indiscriminate use of both hands is the
best lesson to teach a child:--indifference to the distinction bestowed by
the assignment of a place on either, the best lesson to be practised by
adolescence.
Parisians consider it a lesson of politeness to their young children to
kiss their right hand before receiving any thing presented to them. The
left hand is, however, devoted to the wedding-ring. This is not a
Christian custom; but prevailed among the Assyrians, Medes, Egyptians,
Babylonians, and most of the people of antiquity.
Many people object to uttering the word farewell in parting from a friend,
influenced by a prejudice that a fatality attaches to the word. Whence the
French mode of taking leave with "_sans adieu_!"
The compliments formerly paid to a person sneezing are now happily
abandoned; having arisen in those early days of civilization when
epidemics were so far more frequent and fatal than now. It was the custom,
in most European countries, to say "God bless you," to the person who
sneezed, lest it should be symptomatic of the commencement of an illness.
Sneezing has been the object of a variety of ridiculous prejudices.
Aristotle pronounces sneezing to be a gift from the Gods, and to be
honoured as a thing of holiness, and a sign of good health. Hippocrates
agrees with Aristotle, and pronounces it a great relief to parturient
women. The Rabbins assert that Adam sneezed after his fall; and that in
the primitive times, sneezing was a sure prognostic of death; and remained
so till the patriarch Jacob obtained from God that it should no longer be
the forerunner of dissolution. It is fortunate this change took place
previous to the use of snuff; or the snuffbox would have been accounted
fatal as that of Pandora.