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104 GOOD HABITS AND MANNERS *

Be not curious to know the affairs of
» others. '
Speak not evil of the absent.
When you speak of God, let it ever be
with reverence.
Labour to keep alive in your heart that
spark of heavenly fire called conscience.”

Such are some of the rules by which
Washington proposed to regulate his be-
haviour at the age of thirteen. Most of
them turn on one great principle, which is,
that you should treat others with respect;
that you should be tender of the feelings,
and rights, and characters of others; that
you should do to others as you would have
others do to you.

But Washington not only laid down good
rules and committed them tomemory, but he
was wn the habit of observing them; and he
not only observed them when a child, but
after he became a man. He got into the
habit of obeying every one of these rules,
and every one of them became a rail-road
track to him, and he therefore followed them;