Modern language has lost a great deal in the Internet age where a letter, that may have been hand-written with a quill pen and upon paper that was made by manual labour, transported by horse through wind and rain and bandit ridden territory to the sad recipient who may have died of consumption in the interveneing period, can now be dashed off in a few moments by hammering some keys and pressing "send"
Today, written communication has been reduced to the easy form of Hi, blah blah, cheers! and there is very little care taken by the author to convey a sense of respect in e-mail.
In the last hours, I have been the recipient of communication written, obviously by a Gentleman of letters, who uses the polite form of address, even in the oh so immediate e-mail format and I've found myself having the same sort feelings that I had when reading Dickens. Feelings that there really is a correct way of addressing one's peers or that respect can indeed be transported via the medium of text and be recieved with good grace at the other end of an IP packet stream.
Even more surprising to me is that even though the aforementioned Gentleman sent me an e-mail in French and used the polite form of address reserved for letters that are designed to inform you of adverse court judgements or the impending arrival of a baliff, I still felt respect at the other end.
Perhaps the polite civilised manner that men such as Peypes and Darwin used to communicate is not lost and a revival of polite forms of address on the Internet would engender a new era of chivalry. We can only frikkin 'ope.
In any case, Madame or Sir, I pray that you will kindly accept my humblest sentiments of devotion.
Robert.
PS. Hey Ricky, how's breakfast? ;-)
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