AMONG the manuscript books of George Washington, preserved in the State Archives at Washington City, the earliest bears the date, written in it by himself, 1745. Washington was born February 11, 1731, so that while writing in this book he was either near the close of his fourteenth, or in his fifteenth, year. It is entitled "Forms of Writing," has thirty folio pages, and the contents, all in his boyish handwriting, are sufficiently curious. Amid copied forms of exchange, bonds, receipts, sales, and similar exercises, an occasional pen-and-ink face occurs; and there are poetic selections, among them lines of a religious tone on "True Happiness." However, the great interest of the book centers in the pages headed: "Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior In Company and Conversation."
