The Blossoms of Morality

The Blossoms of Morality by M. Berquin and R. Johnson is a manual on etiquette for young women and young men during the early 19th century. Excerpt: «THE faint glimmerings of the pale-faced moon on the troubled billows of the ocean are not so fleeting and inconstant as the fortune and condition of human life. We one day bask in the sunshine of prosperity, and the next, too often, roll in anguish on the thorny bed of adversity and affliction. To be neither too fond of prosperity, nor too much afraid of adversity, is one of the most useful lessons we have to learn and practice in the extensive commerce of this world.»