ABSTRACT
His greatest peril would be in conversation, in his attempt to use words cushioned and caromed with a nicety his own language is unprovided for, in its usage by the honest and commercial AngloSaxon, in the hurry of modern times. He would be wholly unequal to all the polite phrasing, to modest disclaimers and to generous and outspoken praise, the beating about a subject with indirect predication and intimated affirmations free from all bald assertions, the avoidance of the use of all pronouns as too direct not to be a vulgar form of speech, the graded scale of honorifics deepened in flavor according to the rank of the one addressed, the unfailing necessity of making disparaging remarks about everything connected with oneself and praising everything in any way related to the person addressed. You may say that such speech smacks of insincerity. Not more so, however, than bragging, the assumed superiority of our own position and point of view, so apt to creep into our conversation and betray itself.
