ABSTRACT
People are fond of speaking of a crisis of politeness. One might have encountered, in the literary salons, a young poet, fresh from the provinces, who, half seriously and hall in jest, spoke of founding a league for the restoration of the ancient French politeness; and this seemed so extraordinary that he was nicknamed "the Diplodocus". Politeness is to make the gestures of civilization, and it is bound to make the gesture even when there is little feeling behind it, and even when there is none; and so its critics accuse it of hypocrisy. Noise is one of the major evils of our recent industrial civilization. Alain has made some very pertinent observations concerning politeness. But Alain chooses to emphasize the fact that here people must understand the word "ceremony" in its full sense, which is the religious sense. Lessons in politeness always have to be repeated and with each new invention people have to begin again.
