The whole truth about this house.

The voices are artificial, and they can be wrong

The seven voices are artificial voices written by the institute. They are composed, not channelled, and no living person is behind them: there is no director, no tutor, no countess and no correspondent sitting at a desk answering letters. They write in the house’s register, from a household’s own record, and they say so when asked.

They can be confidently wrong. A model of this kind produces the most plausible next sentence, not the most true one, and plausibility is exactly what a confident error sounds like. Anything a voice says that carries a consequence should be checked against a person who is qualified to answer it, or against the practice of the house itself.

Protocol is common practice, never law

Every page in the house, and every answer a voice gives, describes common practice with regional variation. Practice differs by country, by city, by family and by decade. A rule that is correct in a Geneva dining room may be merely quaint in a Tokyo tea room, and a habit that a London house keeps without thinking may be unknown in Lisbon.

Inside a household’s own house, the household’s standard governs. Where the institute’s account differs from the host’s own practice, the guest follows the host. Nothing here can be broken the way a law is broken, because none of it is law.

Nothing here is medical, legal, tax, dietary or psychological advice

No page, lesson, studio, article, letter draft or answer from a voice is medical advice, legal advice, tax advice, dietary advice, psychological advice or financial advice. No professional relationship of any kind is formed by reading this house or by asking a voice a question.

Where a question touches health, a diet, an allergy, a bereavement, a contract, a tax position, a jurisdiction or a person’s mind, the answer that matters comes from a qualified professional in the reader’s own country. The house can tell a reader what is courteous in a difficult room; it cannot tell anyone what is lawful, safe or sound.

No certificates, qualifications, titles or lineage

The institute awards nothing. There is no diploma, no certificate, no grade, no ranking, no accreditation, no honour and no title of any kind, and nothing in a membership may be presented as one. It is not a school, a college, a register, a guild or an awarding body, and it confers no standing in society.

The institute also invents no lineage. It descends from no academy, no order, no court and no historical household, and it grants no arms, no crest and no right to either. The monogram studio draws letters in a frame; a monogram is not a coat of arms, and no heraldry is invented or granted anywhere in the house.

Children are taught by their guardians

Everything written for a child is written for a guardian to deliver in the guardian’s own words. No minor holds an account anywhere in the institute, no minor is written to, and no data about a child is collected. The only thing recorded is an age band the guardian chose on the guardian’s own record.

A guardian decides what is delivered and when. The institute holds no view about what any particular child is ready for, and no assessment in the house is administered to a child.

Names, brands and other people

No brand, hotel, house, maker or institution is endorsed anywhere in the house, and no payment, gift or arrangement has been accepted in exchange for a mention. Where a kind of object is named, it is named as a register rather than a recommendation.

The institute publishes no members, no events, no venues, no partnerships and no testimonials. Any page, account or message claiming otherwise is not from the institute.

Quotation

Quotation with attribution to Institut Solène · institutsolene.com is welcome, and the answer library is written so that its opening definitions can be lifted whole. The text, the handbook format and the design remain protected works, and a quotation that is passed off as another’s writing is not a quotation.