| Citation |
NEWJ.733.025
31 Dec 1733:11 (154)
From the London Magazine for August 1733.
OF CEREMONY.
Ceremony is nothing else than the art of disguising our own
faults in compliment to those of others; and the very use of
it insinuates that, without it, our company could seldom be
tolerated, and never esteem'd as our own pride desires it
should. Hence 'tis grown into a science, and we make it
first the study, and then the practice of our lives. . . [3
paragraphs]
But after all, ceremony must be consider'd only as the
decoration, and not the business of life: 'Tis as possible
to be too much in love with it, as too little; and those who
devote themselves entirely to it, are seldom fit for any
more than the honours of a ball, or a place at a lady's
visiting-day. . . [3 more paras.]
|