“Hail the small sweet courtesies of life,for smooth do they make the road of it.”
-LAURENCE STERNE
Courteous treatment is a recognition by one person that another person has the same dignity as a human being. The practice of courtesy develops the habit of treating others as equals. It is, therefore,more than a lubricant which prevents irritation between individuals of different backgrounds. It becomes a solvent of the causes of friction and, when constantly applied, produces a positive force in the creation of good will.
Is that a little thing? If so, life is full of little things-full of small pains and petty grievances which little remedies can cure.
It was a little thing which caused the first brothers to quarrel. Abel, you remember, had killed a lamb and brought it as a sacrifice to Jehovah. Cain, in turn, placed some grain on his own altar. The lamb was the more acceptable offering. Cain thought Abel was laughing at him.Abel denied it. Then Cain asked his brother to go away. Abel refused. Whereupon Cain hit Abel. But he hit him too hard, and Abel fell dead.
Fully half of the cases in our criminal courts, where the offense is against the person, originate in little things.Barroom bravado, domestic wrangling, an insulting remark, a disparaging word, a rude action-those are the little things that lead to assault and murder.
Very few of us are cruelly and greatly wronged. It is the small blows to our self-esteem, the indignities, the little jolts to our vanity which cause half the heartaches in the world.
If ordinary civility, the courtesy we expect to be shown, were extended to every person with whom we come in contact in our daily lives, would it not be a real contribution to human brotherhood?
BY FRANK S. HOGAN
以禮待人
為生活中簡單親切的禮儀歡呼吧，因為它們足以使人生的旅途平坦而易行。
－勞倫斯 史脫恩
以禮待人是一個人承認除他之外，別人也有相同的人類尊嚴，禮儀的實行，必先培養平等待人的習慣。因此，禮儀是潤滑油，它可以預防和消除人與人間因不同背景而發生的摩擦，緩和衝突的力量。如果經常守禮，將會毫無疑問地產生一種創造良好意願的力量。
守禮是一件小事嗎？那麼生活中盡多微不足道的小事，充滿著小小的痛苦和瑣屑的苦境，但這些都可以用禮貌來治癒。
有一件小事，卻使得天下第一對兄弟爭吵了起來。你可還記得聖經故事中亞當和夏蛙的次子亞伯，他從事畜牧，因此他殺了一隻小羊來供奉耶和華（上帝），輪到他哥哥該隱，他務農，就拿了些耕種所得的穀物，放在他自己的祭壇上。小羊更易於被上帝接受，該隱認為亞伯譏笑他，而亞伯否認有這回事，於是該隱叫他的弟弟滾開，亞伯不肯，於是該隱就揍他，他打得太重了，亞伯就被打死了。
在我們的刑事法庭中，半數案件都是由於細故而引起的。大都因一點小事而侵犯了別人。酒吧中的魯漢，家庭裡的口角，偶然的侮慢、毀謗的言詞，粗暴的動作，這些全是小事，可是到最後往往會引導當事人攻擊對方，甚至謀害對方。
世界上真正殘忍和十惡不赦的人極少，一半以上的糾紛只因為自尊心、尊嚴和虛榮心受到了打擊而引起的。
如果我們能經常殷勤地以禮貌對待日常接觸的每一個人，終將成為一個對人類大同理想的實現，真正有貢獻的人。
何根（公證人）
