Good manners are the art of making those easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy is the best bred in the company. As the best law is founded upon reason, so are the best manners. And as some lawyers have introduced unreasonable things into common law, so likewise many teachers have introduced absurd things into common good manners. One principal point of this art is to suit our behaviour to the three several degrees of men; our superiors, our equals, and those below us. For instance, to press either of the two former to eat or drink is a breach of manners; but a farmer or a tradesman must be thus treated, or else it will be difficult to persuade them that they are welcome. Pride, iii nature, and want of sense, are the three great sources of iii manners; without some one of these defects, no man will behave himself iii for want of experience; or of what, in the language of fools, is called knowing the world. I defy any one to assign an incident wherein reason will not direct us what we are to say or do in company, if we are not misled by pride or iii nature.