SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):

This book on manners and etiquette exceeds what Nichols in the Preface describes as “the proper manners of the drawing-room, the dinner, or the ball” to treat of

the relations of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, employers and employed, landlords and tenants, tradesmen and customers, lawyers and clients, physicians and patients, clergymen and parishioners; of the varied relations of men and women to each other in our complex civilisation, the mutual duties involved in those relations, and the kind of behaviour to each other which will best promote the welfare and happiness of the whole community, as well as the grace and excellence, the charm and enjoyment of what is called society (n. pag.).

In the Introduction, Nichols specifies that the book aims “to teach, in the plainest and most thorough manner, what every man and woman ought to know and do for themselves, and their own health, comfort, dignity, and happiness, and in order that they may promote the comfort and happiness of all around them” (1-2). It is thus quite emphatically part of, as Nichols writes, “the work of social reformation I have endeavoured to promote in all my writings” (3). He is convinced that “[b]ad manners stand in the way of all improvement in social organisation and conditions. They are a terror and a nuisance. They hinder co-operation, and they increase social divisions, and intensify class distinctions. A reform in manners must precede any beneficial reforms in politics and society. Once manners are truly reformed, all other reforms become less difficult” (8). In twenty chapters the book discusses, among other things, the importance of self-care, proper clothing, the art of conversation, the family, the institution of marriage, work and trade, and religion.

For Nichols, diet is an important aspect of self-care. “The type of the most natural, and therefore best and most healthful food,” he writes, “is fruit and the seeds of plants” (23). He promotes a vegan diet of “brown bread, made of unbolted wheat meal, porridge of coarsely ground wheat or oatmeal (the former is best); fruit, as apples, pears, berries, stewed prunes, figs; spinach, and other greens and vegetables” (21-22). Overall, “[t]he more simple the food, and the less it is composed of the bodies of dead animals, the better for health and purity of life” (23). Children, in particular, should never be “excited with gross or high seasoned food, or pampered with dainties. No child should ever taste bacon, and it is better without flesh of any kind” (129). Nichols also condemns tobacco use as detrimental “to human health and well-being” (24), just as he promotes “[t]otal abstinence from all intoxicants” (48), for very much the same reasons. Clothing, too, should be in accordance with the requirements of health in addition to those of taste, hence Nichols' aversion to tight lacing, among other things (33). “We dress for our own health, comfort, and sense of beauty and fitness, first,” he writes, “and then to please, attract, satisfy, and delight all around us” (38).