business, and not like a mountebank and his merry-andrew; to let him see
that there is a way of managing behind a counter, that, let the customer
be what or how it will, man or woman, impertinent or not
impertinent--for sometimes, I must say, the men customers are every jot
as impertinent as the women; but, I say, let them be what they will, and
how they will, let them make as many words as they will, and urge the
shopkeeper how they will, he may behave himself so as to avoid all those
impertinences, falsehoods, follish and wicked excursions which I
complain of, if he pleases.

It by no means follows, that because the buyer is foolish, the seller
must be so too; that because the buyer has a never-ceasing tongue, the
seller must rattle as fast as she; that because she tells a hundred lies
to run down his goods, he must tell another hundred to run them up; and
that because she belies the goods one way, he must do the same the other
way.

There is a happy medium in these things. The shopkeeper, far from being
rude to his customers on one hand, or sullen and silent on the other,
may speak handsomely and modestly, of his goods; what they deserve, and
no other; may with truth, and good manners too, set forth his goods as
they ought to be set forth; and neither be wanting to the commodity he
sells, nor run out into a ridiculous extravagance of words, which have
neither truth of fact nor honesty of design in them.

Nor is this middle way of management at all less likely to succeed, if
the customers have any share of sense in them, or the goods he shows any
merit to recommend them; and I must say, I believe this grave middle way
of discoursing to a customer, is generally more effectual, and more to
the purpose, and more to the reputation of the shopkeeper, than a storm