In a lecture at Harvard in the early nineties by Professor R. G.
Moulton, comparing modern times with the Elizabethan, he called
our age The Age of Anti-Conspicuousness. In reading Dekker
Gull's Hornbook it was clear that the Elizabethan swells tried
in clothes, manner, and appearance to attract as much attention
as possible; whereas Englishmen and Americans three hundred
years later dressed in the fashion not to attract attention but
to avoid it. With this endeavour at protective colouring
naturally came a growth in informality; one wonders now in 1938
whether it is possible to become more informal than the majority
of men and women are at present. Many people today, especially
those of the older generation, observing everywhere the lack of
formality in dress, social relations, and speech, believe that
good manners have vanished--that young men and women are rude to
their elders, rude to those in authority, and rude to each
other. We must be careful not to confuse the absence of
elaborate formalities with ba