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grant; and those who went away from him the most dissatisfied as to the substance of their business were yet personally charmed with him, and in some degree comforted by his manner. With all his gentleness and gracefulness no man living was more conscious of his situation nor maintained his dignity better.

A Young Liar Will Be An Old One.

A man who does not solidly establish, and really deserve, a character of truth, probity, good manners and good morals at his first setting out in the world may impose and shine like a meteor for a very short time, but will very soon vanish and be extinguished with contempt. People easily pardon in young men the common irregularities of the senses, but they do not forgive the least vice of the heart. The heart never grows better by age; I rather fear worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old one, and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older. But should a bad young heart, accompanied with a good head (which by the way seldom is the case), really reform in a more advanced age from a consciousness of folly as well as of its guilt, such a conversion would only be thought prudential and political, but never sincere. A man's moral character is more delicate than a woman's reputation for chastity. A slip or two may possibly be forgiven her, and her character may be clarified by subsequent and continued good conduct, but a man's moral character once tainted is irreparably destroyed.

Trust to Nature for Genuine Pleasures.

Enjoy pleasures, but let them be your own, and then you will taste them, but adopt none; trust to nature for genuine ones. The pleasures that you would feel you must earn; the man who gives himself to all feels none sensibly. Sardanapalus, I am convinced, never in his life felt any. Those only who join serious occupations with pleasures feel either as they should do. Alcibiades, though addicted to the most shameful excesses, gave some time to philosophy and some to business.

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Julius Cæsar joined business with pleasure so properly that they mutually assisted each other; and though he was the husband of all the wives at Rome, he found time to be one of the best scholars, almost the best orator, and absolutely the best general there. An uninterrupted life of pleasures is as insipid as contemptible. Some hours given every day to serious business must whet both the mind and the senses to enjoy those of pleasure. A surfeited glutton, an emaciated sot, and an enervated libertine never enjoy the pleasures to which they devote themselves; they are only so many human sacrifices to false gods. The pleasures of low life are all of this mistaken, merely sensual and disgraceful nature; whereas those of high life, and in good company (though possibly in themselves not more moral), are more delicate, more refined, less dangerous and less disgraceful, and in the common course of things, not reckoned disgraceful at all. In short, pleasure must not, nay, cannot, be the business of a man of sense and character, Business and a Time A Time for but it may, and is, his relief, his reward. particularly so with regard to the women who have the utmost contempt for those men that, having no character nor consideration with their own sex, frivolously pass their whole time in ruelles and at toilettes. They look upon them as their lumber, and remove them whenever they can get better furniture. Women choose their favorites more by the ear than by any other of their senses, or even their understandings. The man whom they hear the most commended by the men will always be the best received by them. Such a conquest flatters their vanity, and vanity is their universal, if not their strongest, passion. A distinguished shining character is irresistible with them; they crowd to, nay, they even quarrel for, the danger, in hopes of the triumph.

It is

for Pleasure.

Though, by the way, to use a vulgar expression, she who conquers only catches a Tartar, and becomes the slave of her captive. Mais c'est la leur affaire. Divide your time between useful occupations and elegant pleasures. The morning seems to belong to study, business or serious conversations with men

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of learning and figure, not that I exclude an occasional hour at a toilette. From sitting down to dinner, the proper business of the day is pleasure, unless real business, which must never be postponed for pleasure, happens accidentally to interfere. In good company the pleasures of the table are always carried to a certain point of delicacy and gratification, but never to excess or riot. Plays, operas, balls, suppers, gay conversations in polite and cheerful companies, properly conclude the evenings, not to mention the tender looks that you may direct and the sighs that you may offer upon these several occasions to some propitious or unpropitious female deity, whose character and manners will neither disgrace nor corrupt yours. This is the life of a man of real sense and pleasure; and by this distribution of your time and choice of your pleasures, you will be equally qualified for the busy or the beau monde.

The Golden Rule.

Pray let no quibbles of lawyers, no refinements of casuists, break into the plain notions of right and wrong, which every man's right reason and plain common sense suggests to him. To do as you would be done by is the plain, sure and undisputed rule of morality and justice. Stick to that and be convinced that whatever breaks into it, in any degree, however speciously it may be turned, and however puzzling it may be to answer it, is, notwithstanding, false in itself, unjust and criminal.

Common sense (which in truth is very uncommon) is the best sense I know of; abide by it, it will counsel you the best.

Mankind is more governed by appearances than by realities; and, with regard to opinion, one had better be really rough and hard, with the appearance of gentleness and softness, than just the reverse.

Appearances:

False and True.

Few people have penetration to discover, attention enough to deserve, or even concern enough to examine beyond the exterior; they take their notions

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gen

from the surface, and go no deeper; they commend as the tlest and best-natured man in the world, that man who has the most engaging exterior manner, though possibly they have been once in his company.

Make the World Your

Bubble.

An air, a tone of voice, a composure of countenance to mildness and softness, which are all easily acquired, do the business, and without farther examination, and possibly with the contrary qualities, that man is reckoned the gentlest, the modestest and the bestnatured man alive. Happy the man who with a certain fund of parts and knowledge gets acquainted with the world early enough to make it his bubble, at an age when most people are the bubbles of the world, for that is the common case of youth. They grow wiser when it is too late; and, ashamed and vexed at having been bubbles so long, too often turn knaves at last.

Nature Always the

Without any extraordinary efforts of genius I have discovered that nature was the same three thousand years ago as it is at present; that men were but men then as well as now; that modes and customs vary very often, but that human nature is always the same. And I can no more suppose that men were better, braver or wiser fifteen hundred or three thousand ago than I can suppose that the animals or vegetables were better than they are now.

Same.

The

years

A vulgar man is captious and jealous; eager and impetuous about trifles. He suspects himself to be slighted, thinks everything that is said is meant for him; if the company happens to laugh, he is persuaded they laugh at him; he grows angry and testy, says something very impertinent, and draws himself into a scrape by showing what he calls a proper spirit and asserting himself. A man of fashion does not suppose himself to be

Vulgar Man.

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either the sole or principal objects of the thoughts, looks or words of the company, and never suspects that he is either slighted or laughed at, unless he is conscious that he deserves it.

The

Vulgar Man.

And if (which very seldom happens) the company is absurd or ill-bred enough to do either, he does not care two pence, unless the insult be so gross and plain as to require satisfaction of another kind. As he is above trifles, he is never vehement and eager about them; and, wherever they are concerned, rather acquiesces than wrangles. A vulgar man's conversation always savors strongly of the lowness of his education and company. It turns chiefly upon his domestic affairs, his servants, the excellent order he keeps in his own family, and the little anecdotes of the neighborhood, all which he relates with emphasis as interesting matters.

The most disagreeable composition that I know in the world is that of strong animal spirits, with a cold genius. Such a fellow is troublesomely active, frivolously busy, foolishly lively, talks much, with little meaning, and laughs more with less reason; whereas, in my opinion, a warm and lively genius, with a cold constitution, is the perfection of human nature.

Perfection.

Flattery.

If you would particularly gain the affection and friendship of particular people, whether men or women, endeavor to find out their predominant excellency, if they have one, and their prevailing weakness, which everybody has, and do justice to the one and something more than justice to the other. Men have various objects in which they may excel, or at least would be thought to excel; and though they love to hear justice done to them where they know that they excel, yet they are most and best flattered upon those points where they wish to excel, and yet are doubtful whether they do or not. As for example: Cardinal Richelieu, who was undoubtedly the ablest statesman of his