purpose, to which I object. It is not visiting itself, but the abuse of
visiting. Celestial spirits, for aught we know, are much employed in
visiting--and shall not man be so? Are we to belong to their society
hereafter, and yet not be their _associates?_ Are we to associate
with them, and yet remain solitaries? Could such a thing be? Is not
man, here and hereafter--as I have already insisted--a social being?
And if so, shall not his social nature and social powers be early and
successfully developed and cultivated? Let our visits but promote the
purposes of benevolence, and nothing can, with propriety, be said
against them. I would wage no war on this point, except with
selfishness.




CHAPTER XXIV.
MANNERS.

Miss Sedgwick on good manners. Her complaint. Just views of good
manners. Good manners as the natural accompaniment of a good heart. The
Bible the best book on manners. Illustrations of the subject.


Miss Sedgwick, in her "Means and Ends," has treated the subject of
Manners in a happier way than any other writer with whom I am
acquainted. Perhaps her views are already familiar to most of my
readers; but lest they should not be so, and on account of their
excellency, I propose to give a brief abstract of some of them.

She complains, in the first place, that manners are too often