Written in the latter part of the nineteenth century as a guide to socially acceptable behaviour and speech, "Don't" contains many injunctions that are still relevant today. It also offers view of the manners of a bygone age that can be viewed as both humourous and entertaining:
Don’t talk when your mouth is full — never, in fact, have your mouth full. It is more healthful and in better taste to eat by small morsels.
Don’t drink wine or spirits in the morning, or often at other times than at dinner. Don’t frequent bar-rooms. Tippling is not only vulgar and disreputable, but injurious to health.
Don’t trouble people with your domestic mishaps, with accounts of your rebellious servants, or with complaints of any kind.
Don’t give yourself wholly to the reading of novels. An excess of this kind of reading is the great vice of womankind. Good novels are good things, but how can women hope to occupy an equal place with men if their intellectual life is given to one branch of literature solely?