 In Bouhours’ text, politeness and artistic taste are closely tied, since it takes a special sense of discernment to perceive literary beauty as well as the right thing to say in a social setting. Both supposedly emanate from the acute sensibility of a refined person who is accustomed to being surrounded by beauty and good manners. The class implications of his ideas about taste are clear to see: only those members of an elite had the instinct for both exquisite politeness and exquisite artistic taste. It denies the possibility that just anyone could receive enough training to reach this level of refinement, an idea that would be shared by later theorists that emerge from this salon culture.