Manners

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Manners aim to facilitate life, to get rid of impediments, and bring the man pure to energize. They aid our dealing and conversation, as a railway aids travelling, by getting rid of all avoidable obstructions of the road, and leaving nothing to be conquered but pure space.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, Manners (1844)

Emerson’s essay on Manners (1844) is an explication of the value of manners in society. Emerson believed that the primary reason for manners was to facilitate the creation and functioning of a social order. At the same time, he sought to dispel the idea that manners reflect a basic difference among classes in society, noting that lower classes sometimes emulate the mannerisms of their superiors without really understanding the purpose of social graces or manners.