I have had members of my own family complimented on their good looks as if they were children.

In this respect Americans differ greatly from the English.
The English adhere with meticulous care to the rule of avoiding everything personal.

They are very much afraid of rudeness on the one hand, and of insincerity or flattery on the other.

Even in the matter of such a harmless affair as a compliment to a foreigner on his knowledge of English, they will precede it with a request for pardon, and speak in a half-apologetic manner, as if complimenting were something personal.

The English and the Americans are closely related, they have much in common, but they also differ widely, and in nothing is the difference more conspicuous than in their conduct.