Manners from the novels

From The Young Philosopher

• Marriage between close relatives or between those with too great a difference in age is considered imprudent (1:70).
• Accomplishments should not be used for purposes of seduction, but rather to glorify God (1:73).
• Areas of female education are encompassed by learning to play the piano or the harp, learning to speak French or Italian, and learning to paint or embroider.
• Young ladies were not encouraged to read novels, because they were typically inflating women's heads with the wrong ideas about marriage and life.
• "The world esteems riches to be a good; and very certainly, in the present order of things, poverty is a very great evil" (1:231).
• "A man of business may talk of philosophy- a man who has no business may practice it" (3:1).
• It is acceptable for a young woman to learn a little Botany, in the house garden. It's a sort of domesticated science. (3:35)
• Bows and curtsey's should not be relaxed in the presence of new acquaintances. This display of familiarity to someone "unfamiliar" is considered impolite (3:309).
• Tanned skin is not something that proper young lady's have (2:16).
• Younger daughters needed to be more beautiful and accomplished than their older sisters because their dowries were not as sizable.

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From Ellinor or the World As It Is

• If one did not have an "official" rank or position in society, neither servants or upper class members knew how to treat them (1:95).

• Marriage in upper class society should be alliances between those "whose consequence and expectancies are similar" (1: 216).
• When traveling, letters of introduction, written by one's friends, should be carried so that one can maintain their social standing, among people of consequence (1:223).
• "Diligent assiduity and steady perseverance may enable us to acquire everything, except wit, that is a natural talent (1:269).
• A woman's capability to learn accomplishments was never doubted, it was always a matter of which school she attended (2:16).
• Over gesturing with one's fan and posture that is "too stiff" is considered poor manners (2:39).
• "A woman never appears so truly irresistible in the eyes of men of sense, as when employed in fulfilling the task assigned by her nature-- as a dutiful daughter, affectionate sister, faithful wife, tender mother, and sincere friend. If she acts well in those various situations, she will be rewarded by love and admiration of the estimable part of creation and the applause of her own heart" (2:115).
• Proper women discipline themselves with restraint. It is unfeminine to behave without this virtue (2:118).
• "To be valued, you must think for yourself" (2:243).
• If marrying into fortune- one must bring a title; if marrying into a title- one must bring a fortune (3:110).
• Clothes greatly impact ones demeanor. "Dress in general acts as a stimulus to the passions of its wearers" (3:121).
• While "vice and duplicity may prosper for a time, they will finally meet their deserved punishment; and truth and virtue ultimately triumph" (3:239).
• "Modest attention and serious composure is ... the proper behavior of a bride" (4:355).

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From Evelina

• A good companion to a young woman is educated, principled, gentle in temper, and amiable in her manners (59).
• To "Londonize" is to furnish one's self with the most current London fashions in dress (70).
• A "fop" is a term applied to a fashionable male, usually of the middle or upper classes, who affected an air of outlandish frivolity in dress and speech. Real-life fops were more interested in their clothing, hairstyles, and fashionable amusements (74).
• "Never dance in public with a stranger,-- with one whose name you are unacquainted with, -- who may be a mere adventurer, -a man of no character, - consider to what impertinence you may expose yourself" (91).
• An obscure background is not a good thing for a young lady in society.
• "It is sometimes dangerous to make requests to men, who are desirous of receiving them"(195).
• "You cannot be too circumspect; the slightest carelessness on your part, will be taken advantage of by a man of [unmannerly] disposition. It is not sufficient for you to be reserved; [unmannerly] conduct even calls for your resentment" (203).
• Should a young man try to solicit a young woman's private time, she should behave in a markedly disdainful manner to make her displeasure evident (203).
• "We are the slaves of custom, the dupes of prejudice, and dare not stem the torrent of an opposing world, even though our judgments condemn our compliance! however, since the die is cast, we must endeavor to make the best of it" (205).
• "If any schemes are started, any engagements made, which your understanding represents to you as improper, exert yourself resolutely in avoiding them, and do not, by a too passive facility, risk the censure of the world, or your own future regret" (205-206).
• "Nothing is so delicate as the reputation of a woman: it is, at once, the most beautiful and most brittle of all human things" (206).
• "Let no weak fears, no timid doubts, deter you from the exertion of your duty, according to the fullest sense of it that nature has implanted in your mind. Though gentleness and modesty are the peculiar attributes of your sex, yet fortitude and firmness, when occasion demands them, are virtues noble and as becoming in women as in men: the right line of conduct is the same for both sexes, though the manner in which it is pursued, may somewhat vary, and be accommodated to the strength or weakness of the different travelers" (258).
• Women should not initiate correspondences with men (299).
• "Toad eaters" are a term for a dependent, usually a woman, who serves as a companion to her social superiors in exchange for support (329).

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From Julia; a novel

• "Conformity to fashion is virtue" (1:31).
• "there was no harm in a fine woman's inspiring passion in other man as well as her husband; and in listening to the language of love, or even feeling the sentiment in her own bosom, so long as her conduct was without reproach" (1:168).
• "Avarice is a passion as despicable as it is hateful" (1:170).
• "The real motives which influence men of the world can be as little known from their actions, as the original hue of some muddy substance, which, by chemical operations, has been made to assume a tint of the purest color" (1:207).
• "People are at as much pains to display their feelings on occasions when they feel nothing, as to hide them at cards, when they are losing their money, and really feel a great deal" (2:47).
• "Charity resembles Spring, whose benign influence, in a scanty soil, can only wake a few scattered blossoms; but in a more favorable situation, spreads a profusion of beauty, and rejoices the heart of nature" (2:190).
• "No woman ought to survive the age of fifty" (2:212).
• Guard the mind against the influences of passion (2:238).
• "Women have even greater reason than men to fortify thier hearts against those strong affections, which when not regulated by discretion, plunge into aggravated misery" (2:238).

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