ed, thinks every thing that is faid meant at him : if the company happens to laugh, he is perfuaded they laugh at him; he grows angry and tefty, fays fomething very impertinent, and draws himfelf into a ferape, by fhowing what he calls a proper fpirit, and afferting himself. A man of fafhion does not fuppofe himself to be either the fole or principal object of the thoughts, looks, or words of the company; and never fufpects that he is either flighted or laughed at, unless he is conscious that he deferves it. And if (which very feldom happens) the company is abfurd or ill-bred enough to do either, he does not care two-pence, unlefs the infult be fo grofs and plain as to require fatisfaction of another kind. As he is above trifles, he is never vehement and eager about them; and, wherever they are concerned, rather acquiefces than rangles. A vulgar man's converfation always favours ftrongly of the lowness of his education and company. It turns chiefly upon his domeftic affairs, his fervants, the excellent order he keeps in his own family, and the little anecdotes of the neighbourhood; all which he relates with emphafis, as interefting matters. He is a man goffip.

Vulgarifm in language is the next, and diftinguifhing characteristic of bad company, and a bad educa-tion. A man of fashion avoids nothing with more care than that. Proverbial expreffions, and trite fayings, are the flowers of the rhetoric of a vulgar man. Would he fay, that men differ in their taftes; he both fupports and adorns that opinion, by the good old faying, as he refpectfully calls it, that "What is one man's meat is another man's poifon." If any body attempts being 'fmart,' as he calls it, upon him; he gives him 'tit for tat-aye that he does. He has always fome favourite word for the time being; which, for the fake of ufing often, he commonly abufes. Such as vaftly angry, vaftly kind, vaftly handsome, and vaftly ugly. Even his pronunciation of proper words carries the mark of the beaft along with it. He calls the earth yearth; he is obleiged, not obliged to you. He goes to wards, and not towards fuch a place. He fonetimes affects hard words, by way of ornament.

he always mangles like a learned woman. A man of fafhion never has recourfe to proverbs, and vulgar aphorifms; ufes neither favourite words nor hard words; but takes great care to speak very correctly and grammatically, and to pronounce properly; that is according to the ufage of the best companies.

An awkward addrefs, ungraceful attitudes and actions, and a certain left-handinefs (If I may use that word) loudly proclaim low education and low company; for it is impoffible to fuppofe that a man can have frequented good company, without having caught fomething, at leaft, of their air and motions. A new-raifed man is diftinguished in a regiment by his awkwardness; but he must be impenetrably dull, if, in a month or two's time, he cannot perform at leaft the common manual exercife, and look like a foldier. The very accoutrements of a man of fashion are grievous incumbrances to a vulgar man. He is at a lois what to do with his hat, when it is not upon his head; his cane (if unfortunately he wears one) is at perpetual war with every cup of tea or coffee he drinks; deftroys them firit, and then accompanies them in their fall. His fword is formidable only to his own legs, which would poflibly carry him faft enough out of the way of any fword but his own. His clothes fit him fo ill, and cónftrain him fo much, that he feems rather their prifoner than their proprie. tor. He prefents himself in company, like a criminal in a court of juftice; his very air condemns him ; and people of fafhion will no more connect themselves with the one, than people of character will with the other. This repulfe drives and finks him into low company; a gulph whence no man after a certain age, ever emerged.

You are travelling now in a country once fo famous both for arts and arms, that (however degenerated at prefent) it ftill deferves your attention and reflection. View it therefore with care, compare its former with its prefent flate, and examine into the caufes of its defiendly and politic

young countrymen do, mufically, and (to ufe a ridiculous word) knickknackically. No piping or fiddling, I befeech you; no days loft in poring upon almoft imperceptible intaglies and cameos and do not become a virtuofo of fmall wares. Form a tafte of painting, fculpture, and architecture, if you please, by a careful examination of the works of the belt ancient and modern artists; thofe are liberal arts, and a real taste and knowledge of them become a man of fashion very well. But beyond certain bounds, the man of tafte ends, and the frivolous virtuofo begins.

LETTER LXXVIII.

Objects of rational Inquiry to a Traveller..Architecture... Painting and Sculpture.

DEAR BOY,

London, October the 17th

I HAVE, at laft, received Mr. Harte's letter of the 19th September, from Verona. Your reafons for leaving that place were very good ones; and, as you ftaid there long enough to fee what was to be feen, Venice is, in my opinion, a much better place for your refidence.

I am very well pleafed with your account of Carniola thofe are, the kind of objects worthy of your inquiries and knowledge. The produce, the taxes, the trade, the manufactures, the ftrength, the weakness, the government, of the feveral countries, which a mani of fenfe travels through, are the material points to which he attends; and leaves the fteeples, the marketplaces, and the figns, to the laborious and curious refearches of Dutch and German travellers.

Mr. Harte tells me, that he intends to give you, by means of fignor Vicentini, a general notion of civil and military architecture; with which I am very well pleafed. They are frequent fubjects of converfation; and it is very right that you fhould have fome idea of the latter, and a good tafte of the former; and you may very foon learn as much as you, need know of either.

If you read about one-third of Palladio's Book of At chitecture, with fome fkilful perfon, and then, with that perfon, examine the best buildings by thofe rules, you will know the different proportion of the different orders; the feveral diameters of their columns; their intercolumniations; their feveral ufes, &c. The Corinthian order is chiefly used in magnificent buildings, where ornament and decoration are the principal objeas; the Doric is calculated for ftrength; and the Ionic partakes of the Doric ftrength and of the Corinthian ornaments. The Compofite and the Tufcan orders are more modern, and were unknown to the Greeks the one is too light, the other too clumfy. You may foon be acquainted with the confiderable parts of civil architecture; and for the minute and mechanical parts of it, leave them to mafons, bricklayers, and lord Burlington, who has, to a certain degree, leffened himself, by knowing them too well. Ob ferve the fame method as to military architecture: understand the terms; know the general rules, and then fee them in execution with fome fkilful perfon.

Go with fome engineer or old officer, and view, with care, the real fortifications of fome strong place; and you will get a clearer idea of baftions, half-moons, horn-works, ravelins, glacis, &c. than all the mafters in the world could give you upon paper. much I would, by all means, have you know of both civil and military architecture.

And thus

I would alfo have you acquire a liberal taste of the two liberal arts of painting and fculpture; but without defcending into thofe minutiae, which our modern virtuofi most affectedly dwell upon. Obferve the great parts attentively; fee if nature is truly reprefented; if the paffions are strongly expreffed; if the characters are preferved; and leave the trifling parts, with their little jargon, to affected puppies. I would advife you, alfo, to read the hiftory of the painters and fculptors; and I know none better than Felibien's. There are many in Italian; you will inform yourself which are the beft. It is a part of hiftory, very entertaining, curious enough, and not quite ufelefs. All these fort of things I would

Have you know, to a certain degree; but remember, that they must only be the amusements, and not the bu finefs of a man of parts.

LETTER LXXIX.

General View of a good Education.. Principles of Virtue... Learning...Good-Breeding...Eafe...Equality...Civility to In

feriors.

DEAR BOY,

FROM

:

London, November the 3d.

ROM the time that you have had life, it has been the principal and favourite object of mine, to make you as perfect as the imperfections of human-nature will allow in this view, I have grudged no pains nor expenfe in your education; convinced that education, more than nature, is the caufe of that great difference which we fee in the characters of men. While you were a child, I endeavoured to form your heart habitually to virtue and honour, before your understanding was capable of fhowing you their beauty and utility. Thofe principles, which you then got, like your grammar rules, only by rote, are now, I am perfuaded, fixed and confirmed by reafon. And indeed they are fo plain and clear, that they require but a very moderate degree of understanding, either to comprehend or practise them. Lord Shaftesbury fays, very prettily, that he would be virtuous for his own fake, though nobody were to know it; as he would be clean for his own fake, though nobody were to fee him. I have therefore, fince you have had the ufe of your reafon, never written to you upon thofe fubjects: they fpeak best for themselves; and I fhould now, juft as foon think of warning you gravely not to fall into the dirt or the fire, as into difhonour or vice. This view of mine I confider as fully attained. My next soject was, found and ufeful learning. My own care firft, Mr. Harte's afterwards, and of late (I will own it to your praise) your own application, have more than anfwered my expectations in that particular; and,I have reafon to believe,