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ABOUT PEOPLE.

certain standard of manner and dress. They accept or outlaw one another by the number of buttons on gloves, the shape of bonnets, and a Greek or French "tournure." Externals are generally a good basis for primary opinion, but never a reason for illiberality towards those whom taste does not approve. To refuse to associate with others because their manners are not suited to our liking is provincial, and provincialism is the essence of illiberality, while cosmopolitanism is the essence of liberality. Business and preoccupation cannot be offered as excuses for illiberalism and provincialism. An unknown or queer person is invited to a family dinner. An estimable woman who wore greens and purples of bygone shades, who lounged rather than sat, and who had lived in Boston for several years, excused her shortcomings by explaining that she had never been invited to a meal where she met any other lady than the hostess. Who has the courage to stop

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