Excerpt from Social Customs
The man who made the first map of the earth"s surface had a comparatively easy task to fulfil Like Columbus, the world lay before him where to choose; he was not obliged to respect the prejudices nor the landmarks of any predecessor, hut could draw freely upon his own imagination. The last maker of atlases has a very different work to do. His fancy can make no lofty flights; cold realities fence him in on every side. Not an island, not a wretched little cape can he omit; he must copy all his predecessors, and yet he must create a new work. "It is the last step which costs," he exclaims in the bitterness of his heart, and longs for those ancient days of geographical license when turtles, elephants, and serpents figured in place of North and South America.
It is with somewhat similar feelings that the writer of this little volume has entered upon her task. The difficulty of writing a new discourse upon so old a theme as manners is greater than might appear to one who had given the subject no thought.
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