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In 1844, one Peter Parley published an etiquette book with a title that cannot be improved upon: "What to Do, and How to Do It." The nineteenth century was the heyday of the genre, although it has been with us since ancient times. The Cumaean Sibyl, like her modern counterparts, counselled the lovelorn, the infertile, the vengeful, the victimized, the credulous, the desperate, and the physically challenged. She also had a large roster of celebrity clients and did the occasional channelling job for a politician. Her do's and don'ts for statesmen were set down in hexameter, and could be consulted only by permission of the Roman Senate. It was she who appeared before King ...