Summary of J. C. Hill's Good Manners

         

Introduction

J. C. Hill is a famous English writer.  J. C. Hill’s Good Manners is an extract from his famous book An Introduction to Citizenship.  This essay talks about the manners one should have in the society.

The story of the young man

The author opens the essay with a story of a young man.  The young man would be very proud of himself.  He would be selfish.  He never minds about others.  Once a disease attacked him and then it was difficult for him to walk and stand in the bus.  Only at that time, he saw others, who were unmindful of him.  He was cured and later he started helping others.  Through this story, the author wishes to say that we should care for people around us, which is a good manner.  He asks us not to laugh at the old people who find it hard to cross the road.  He says that our laughter will turn back to us soon, as it happened with the young man.

Speaking in company

He asks us to be cautious while speaking with others.  If we are talking with another person, we should give him a chance to speak too.  If they do not speak, it means that they do not want us to talk too.  Then we are asked to be listener cautious too.  If we speak of some subject, we should be aware of the fact that the listener might have a different idea about what we are talking.  The author gives different meanings for the word socialism for different people.

Understanding ourselves

The author advises us to understand ourselves before teasing or talking ill about others.  He gives several examples for this.  If an old woman asks a boy with scout uniform whether he is a scout boy then the boy should explain himself.  He should not scold her for being silly.  He also says that none of understand ourselves.  He gives an experiment as an example.  The experiment conducted in a college in which the students were shown a bull picture.  Some students said that the bull’s tongue was out of its mouth, but it was not so.  The author says that every one of us are not aware of ourselves and we should take care of what we argue and speak.

Conclusion

The author concludes the essay by saying that there is not single truth in the world.  What might be true to us might be false for someone else.  So he asks us to cultivate the good manners of understanding other people and not hurting them.