Page:The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.djvu/160

154 girl, "I have already seen the Irish lady, in the kitchen." This Irish lady, was the cook, a very good woman in her way, but one who had no pretensions to be so termed!

Such a confusion in the ideas of this child, is a certain proof of a want of training, for the young ladies who were treated so disrespectfully, were not the less ladies, nor did the cook become more than a cook, for the vulgarity. Facts are not to be changed by words, and all they obtain, who fancy their language and deportment can alter the relations of society, is an exposure of their own ignorance.

The entire complexion, and in many respects, the well being of society, depends on the deportment of its different members, to each other. It behoves the master to be kind to the servant, the servant to be respectful and obedient to his master; the young and inexperienced to defer to the aged and experienced; the ignorant to attend to the admonitions of the wise, and the unpolished to respect the tastes and habits of the refined.

In other countries, where positive ordinances create social distinctions in furtherance of these ends, it is believed they cannot be obtained in any other manner; but it is to be hoped that America is destined to prove, that common sense and the convictions of propriety and fitness, are as powerful agents as force. The servility and arrogance of a highly artificial social scale are not to be desired, but, having positive social facts, also, which cannot be dispensed with, it is vain to resist them. Civility and respect, are the sure accompaniments of a high civilization, and the admission of obvious facts is an indispensable requisite of common sense, as their denial is evidence of infatuation and folly.