Of all our presidents, George Washington best projected the dignity and gravitas of some ancient Roman senator. John Adams, who was no admirer of Washington, nevertheless recorded what he considered his top 10 qualities, including “an elegant Form,” “graceful Attitudes and Movement,” “the Gift of Silence,” and “great Self Command.”
These “Talents,” as Adams called them, did not just magically appear. At 14, Washington copied out “110 Rules of Civility,” precepts compiled by French Jesuits about 150 years earlier and then translated into English. Time has fashioned antiques, often humorously so, from some of these maxims, such as “Spit not in the Fire … nor set your Feet upon the Fire especially if there be meat before it” or “Rince not your Mouth in the Presence of Others.”
