I look at the boys growing up around me with sincere admiration, they are so superior to their predecessors in breeding, in civility, in deference to older people, and in a thousand other little ways that mark high-bred men.The stray Englishman, of no particular standing at home no longer finds our men eager to entertain him, to put their best "hunter" at his disposition, to board, lodge, and feed him indefinitely, or make him honorary member of all their clubs.It is a constant source of pleasure to me to watch this younger generation, so plainly do I see in them the influence of their mothers - women I knew as girls, and who were so far ahead of their brothers and husbands in refinement and culture.To have seen these girls marry and bring up their sons so well has been a satisfaction and a compensation for many disillusions.Woman's influence will always remain the strongest lever that can be brought to bear in raising the tone of a family;it is impossible not to see about these young men a reflection of what we found so charming in their mothers.One despairs at times of humanity, seeing vulgarity and snobbishness riding triumphantly upward; but where the tone of the younger generation is as high as I have lately found it, there is still much hope for the future.
第63章 Mens Manners (2)（2 / 2）