IV. His Bad Manners.

His bearings in Society. - His deportment toward Women. - His disdain
of Politeness.

There are very few monarchs, even absolute, who persistently, arid
from morning to night, maintain a despotic attitude. Generally, and
especially in France, the sovereign makes two divisions of his time,
one for business and the other for social duties, and, in the latter
case, while always head of the State, he is also head of his house:
for he welcomes visitors, entertains his guests, and, that his guests
may not be robots, he tries to put them at their ease. - That was the
case with Louis XIV.[86] - polite to everybody, always affable with
men, and sometimes gracious, always courteous with women, and some
times gallant, carefully avoiding brusqueness, ostentation, and
sarcasms, never allowing himself to use an offensive word, never
making people feel their inferiority and dependence, but, on the
contrary, encouraging them to express opinions, and even to converse,
tolerating in conversation a semblance of equality, smiling at a
repartee, playfully telling a story - such was his drawing-room
constitution. The drawing-room as well as every human society needs
one, and a liberal one; otherwise life dies out. Accordingly, the
observance of this constitution in by-gone society is known by the
phrase savoir-vivre, and, more rigidly than anybody else, Louis XIV.
submitted himself to this code of proprieties. Traditionally, and
through education, he had consideration for others, at least for the
people around him; his courtiers becoming his guests without ceasing
to be his subjects.