Etiquette & Manners

Element IV: The Human Being

Etiquette, the codes of rules that govern social behavior, probably takes its name from the 17th-century court of Louis XIV, where courtiers were given une etiquette (a ticket), a list of elaborate rules prescribing acceptable behavior for every situation that might be encountered at court. Louis himself wrote a book on court ceremony. The earliest known book of manners is the ancient Egyptian "The Instructions of Ptah Hotep", in which a father advises his son on proper conduct.

Such books have been written in all sophisticated societies and reached a height of popularity in 19th-century England and the United States, as the upwardly mobile tried to remedy their ignorance of the manners of the rich. In 20th-century America, books such as Etiquette, The Blue Book of Social Usage, by Emily Post, have been perennial best-sellers. Although interest in codified lists of behavior has declined in recent years, books giving the conventions for weddings, funerals, and other formal occasions are still in great demand.

"We are like the dancers in an ancient French square dance -- the quadrille -- as we step in and out of each other's lives, back and forth, making fascinating patterns with family members, friends, co-workers and others who cross our paths in the course of a day. When we are the first to reach out with a smile, friendly bantering, and an emanation of warmth and good cheer, our relationships with others cannot help but be good. A flower tilts toward the sun; a human being turns toward another warm and kind human being. The similarity between good relationships and good manners is not only obvious -- the two are one and the same!"

-- Letitia Baldrige,
Etiquette Master

Return to Element IV Index: The Human Being

Life Planner® - The LifeCraft Organizer

User's Guide - Companion to the Life Planner

LIFECRAFT® - Home Page

To move backward or forward in exact order to all other pages you may have previously viewed, please use the navigation tools included in your Web browser especially designed for this purpose.