to leave them the power of flexure. In a word, in infancy he was shapeless, and in youth a looby. Never did a fhe-bear with more anxious affiduity labour to lick her cub into shape than this fond parent did to correct the errors of nature in the formation of this his darling: the head, the shoulders and the hands, were, by turns, the objects of his care; but the legs and feet feem to have engaged most of his attention: these upon his being fent abroad, were committed to the care of a dancing-master at Paris, whose instructions he estimates at a higher rate than the precepts of Ariftotle*. He recommends to form his manners les agrémens et les graces, les manieres, la tournure, et les ufages du beau monde ; and is perpetually reminding him of that trite maxim Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re.' ||

The best furniture of a young man's mind are the precepts of religion and found morality. Not a word of either of thefe do we meet with in two quarto volumes of thofe letters which I am now citing, but in them precepts of a different kind, fuch as refpect his pleasures, abound. Affuming an air of fapience, which was not very natural to his lordship, he remarks, . that in the course of the world the qualifications of the cameleon are often neceffary, nay, they must be carried a little farther, and exerted a little fooner; for should,' adds he, to a certain degree take the hue of either the man or woman that you want and

you

wish to be upon terms with.' Fatherly curiofity then prompts him to an enquiry into certain particulars, which these his own words will go near to explain :

Letter 215. Letter 214. Letter 217. || Letter 213.

Apropos have you yet found out at Paris any friendly and hofpitable Madame de Lurfay, qui veut ⚫ bien fe charger du foin de vous éduquer ? And have you had any occafion of representing to her, qu'elle 'faifoit donc des noeuds? But I ask your pardon, Sir, for the abruptnefs of the queftion, and acknowledge that I am meddling with matters that are out ' of my department. However, in matters of less importance I defire to be de vos fecrets le fidele dépofitaire. Trust me with the general turn and 'colour of your amufements at Paris. Is it le fracas du grand monde, comédies, bals, opéras, cour, ' &c.? Or is it des petites focietés moins bruiantes 'mais pas pour cela moins agréables? Where are you 'the most établi? Where are you le petit Stanhope? Voyez vous encore jour, à quelque arrangement 'honnête?' Letter 212.

Farther to initiate him into vice, he recommends to him the turning over men by day and women 'by night,' for thus it pleases him to render the precept Nocturna verfate manu verfate diurna*; and with matchlefs effrontery and total difregard for the perfonal fafety of him whom he is instructing, advises him, in effect, to rifque being run through the body, or the breaking his neck out of a bed-chamber window, by commencing an intrigue with a new-married and virtuous young lady. Hear the documents of our Metnor to this purpose: 'Go,' fays he, among 'women, with the good qualities of your sex, and you will acquire from them the foftnefs and the graces of 'theirs. Men will then add affection to the esteem

⚫ which they before had for you.-Women are the

с

only refiners of the merit of men: it is true they cannot add weight; but they polifh and give luftre to it. Apropos: I am affured that Madame de Blot, although fhe has no great regularity of features, is notwithstanding, exceflively pretty, and that for all that, fhe has as yet been fcrupulously conftant to her husband, though fhe has now been 'married above a year. Surely fhe does not reflect that woman wants polishing. I would have you polish one another reciprocally. Affiduities, attentions, tender looks, and paffionate declarations on your fide, will produce fome irrefolute wishes at • least on hers, and when even the flightest wishes arife, the reft will foon follow *.*

Finally, to attain these and the other ends which his lordship points out as the objects of his fon's purfuit, he inculcates in the strongest terms the practice of thofe arts of crooked cunning, which, as lord Bacon has remarked, oftner defeat than effect their purpose, and together with these, the general exercise of that diffimulation which was one of the most prominent features in his own character.

The letters from lord Chesterfield to his fon are two hundred and eighty-five in number. The precepts contained in them are multifarious, and it is to be feared that they have not only been adopted by many ignorant parents and indiscreet tutors, but that they have greatly tended to corrupt the morals of the rifing generation. As an antidote to the poifon which they must be supposed to have diffused, I fhall

* Letter 218.

here

here infert a letter of moral inftruction from one of the wifeft and greateft men that this nation ever had to boast of, to his fon, and leave the reader to make the comparison between it and those of the nobleman of whom I am now fpeaking. It is from Sir Henry Sydney to his fon Philip, afterwards the famous Sir Philip, who, when arrived at the age of manhood, combining the qualities of a foldier, a scholar, a poet, and a courtier, was confeffedly one of the most accomplished gentlemen in Europe,

• lifting up

1

'I have received two letters from you, one written in Latin, the other in French, which I take in good part, and will you to exercise that practice of learning often, for that will stand you in most stead in that profeffion of life that you are born to live in. And fince this is my first letter that ever I did write f to you, I will not that it be all empty of fome advices, which my natural care of you provoketh me to wish you to follow, as documents to you in this your tender age. Let your first action be the of your mind to Almighty God by hearty prayer, and feelingly and feelingly digeft the words you speak in prayer with continual meditation and thinking of him to whom you pray, and of the matter ' for which you pray, and ufe this as an ordinary, at, and at an ordinary hour, whereby the time itself ' will put you in remembrance to do that which you ' are accustomed to do. In that time apply your study to fuch hours as your difcreet master doth affign you, earnestly, and the time I know he will 'fo limit as fhall be both fufficient for your learning, and fafe for your health: and mark the sense and

<

• the

the matter of that you read, as well as the words; • so shall you both enrich your tongue with words, • and your wit with matter, and judgment will grow as years grow in you. Be humble and obedient to your master; for unless you frame yourself to • obey others, yea and feel in yourself what obediC ence is, you fhall never be able to teach others how to obey you. Be courteous of gefture, and affable to all men, with diversity of reverence according to the dignity of the perfon: there is nothing that ⚫ winneth fo much with fo little coft. Ufe moderate diet, fo as after your meat you may find your wit fresher and not duller, and your body more lively ⚫ and not more heavy. Seldom drink wine, and yet ⚫ fometime do, left being inforced to drink upon the ¿ fudden you should find yourself inflamed. Use ex⚫ercife of body, but fuch as is without peril of your joints or bones: it will increase your force and en< large your breath. Delight to be cleanly as well in • all parts of your body as in your garments: it shall make you grateful in each company, and otherwise loathfome. Give yourself to be merry; for you degenerate from your father if you find not yourself moft able in wit and body to do any thing when you be most merry: but let your mirth be ever void of all fcurrility and biting words to any man, for a wound given by a word is oftentimes harder to be cured than that which is given with the fword. Be you rather a hearer and bearer away of other mens' talk than a beginner or procurer of speech, otherwise

you fhall be counted to delight to hear yourself

fpeak. If you hear a wife sentence or an apt phrase, ⚫ commit