ciated fot, and an enervated rotten whore-mafter, nev er enjoy the pleafures to which they devote themfelves; they are only fo many human facrifices to falfe gods. In fhort, pleasure muft not, nay cannot, be the bulinefs of a man of fenfe and character; but it may be, and is, his relief, his reward. It is particularly fo with regard to the women, who have the utmost contempt for those men, that, having no character nor confide ration with their own fex, frivolously pafs 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 chufe their favourites more by the ear than by any other of their fenfes, or even their understandings. The man whom they hear the most commended by the men will always be the beft received by them. Divide your time between useful occupations and elegant pleafures. The morning feems to belong to ftudy, bufinefs, or ferious converfation with men of learning and figure. From fitting down to dinner, the proper bufinefs of the day is pleafure, unless real bufinefs, which must never be poftponed for pleasure, happens accidentally to interfere. You fee I am not rigid, and do not require that you and I fhould be of the fame age. What I fay to you, therefore, fhould have the more weight, as coming from a friend, not a father. But low company, and their low vices, their indecent riots, and profligacy, I never will bear, nor forgive.

I have lately received two volumes of Treatifes, in German and Latin, from Hawkins, with your orders, under your own hand, to take care of them for you; which orders I fhall moft dutifully and punctually obey; and they wait for you in my library, together with your great collection of rare books, which your mamma fent me upon removing from her old houfe.

I hope you not only keep up, but improve in your German, for it will be of great ufe to you when you come into business; and the more fo, as you will be almoft the only Englishman who either can fpeak or understand it. Pray fpeak it conftantly to all Ger

ns, wherever you meet them, and you will meet

multitudes of them at Paris. Is Italian now become eafy and familiar to you? Can you fpeak it with the fame fluency that you can fpeak German? You cannot conceive what an advantage it will give you, in negotiations, to poffefs Italian, German, and French perfectly, fo as to understand all the force and finesse of thofe three languages. If two men of equal talents negotiate together, he who beft understands the language in which the negotiation is carried on will infallibly get the better of the other. The fignification and force of one fingle word is often of great confequence in a treaty, and even in a letter.-Adieu !

LETTER XCIV.

Truth and Probity essential in all Stations.....Candour...Vanity. Modefty...Syftematic Cen ut.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

YOUR

London, May the 17th

A

OUR apprenticeship is near out, and you are foon to fet up for yourself; that approaching moment is a critical one for you, and an anxious one for me. tradefman who would fucceed in his way, muft begin by establishing a character of integrity and good manners: without the former, nobody will go to his fhop at all; without the latter nobody will go there twice. This rule does not exclude the fair arts of trade. He may fell his goods at the best price he can, within certain bounds. He may avail himfelf of the humour, the whims, and the fantastical taftes of his cuftomers: but what he warrants to be good must be really fo; what he feriously afferts must be true or his firft fraudulent profits will foon end in a bankruptcy. It is the fame in higher life, and in the great bufinefs of A man who does not folidly establish, and really deferve, a character of truth, probity, good manners, and good morals, at his first fetting out in the world, may impofe, and fhine like a meteor for a very hort time, but will very foon vanish, and be extinguished with contempt. People may pardon, in youne

the world.

men, the common irregularities of the fenfes; but they do not forgive the leaft vice of the heart. The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worfe; 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 fhould a bad young heart, accompanied with a good head (which, by the way, very feldom is the cafe) really reform in a more advanced age, from a confcioufnefs of its folly, as well as of its guilt, fuch a converfion would only be thought prudential and political, but never fincere. I hope in God, and I verily believe, that you want no moral virtue. But the poffeffion of all the moral virtues, in actu prime t, as the logicians call it, is not fufficient; you must have them in actu fe unao LOO Nay, that is not fufficient neither; you mait have the reputation of them alfo. Your charafter in the world must be built upon that folid foun dation, or it will foon fall, and upon your own head. You cannot therefore be too careful, too nice, too fcrupulous, in establishing this character at first, upon which your whole depends. Let no converfation, no example, o fashion, no ben mot, no filly defire of feeming to be above what moft knaves, and many fools, cali prejudices, ever tempt you to avow, excufe, extenuate, or laugh at the leaft breach of morality; but fhow upon all occafions, and take all occafions to fhow a deteftation and abhorrence of it. There, though young, you ought to be strict; and there only, while young, it becomes you to be ftrict and fevere. But there too, fpare the perfons, while you lafh the crimes.

To come now to a point of much lefs, but yet of very great confequence, at your first fetting out. Be extremely upon your guard against vanity, the common failing of inexperienced youth; but particularly againft that kind of vanity that dubs a man a coxcomb,

a character which, once acquired, is indelible. It is not to be imagined by how many different ways vanity defeats its own purrofes. One man decides peremptorily upon every fubject, betrays his ignorance

In the first inftance,

upon many, and fhows a difgufting prefumption upon the reft. Another defires to appear fuccefsful among the women; he hints at the encouragement he has received, from thofe of the moft diftinguifhed rank and beauty, and intimates a particular connection with fome one; if it is true, it is ungenerous; if false, it is infamous but in either cafe he destroys the reputation he wants to get. Some flatter their vanity, by little extraneous objects, which have not the leaft relation to themselves-fuch as being defcended from, related to, or acquainted with people of diftinguished merit and eminent characters. They talk perpetually of their grandfather fuch-a-one, their uncle fuch-a-one, and their intimate friend, Mr. fuch-a-one, with whom, poflibly, they are hardly acquainted. But admitting it all to be as they would have it, what then? Haye they the more merit for these accidents? Certainly not. On the contrary, their taking up adventitious, proves their want of intrinfic merit-a rich man never borrows. Take this rule for granted, as a never failing one, that you must never feem to affect the character in which you have a mind to fhine. Modefty is the virtue which fecures merited applaufe. The affectation of courage will make even a brave man pass only for a bully; as the affectation of wit will make a man of parts pafs for a coxcomb. By this modefty, I do not mean timidity, and awkward bafhfulness. On the contrary, be inwardly firm and fteady, know your own value, whatever it may be, and act upon that principle; but take care to let nobody discover that you do know your own value. Whatever real merit you have, other people will difcover; and people always magnify their own difcoveries, as they leffen

thofe of others.

Revolve all these things feriously in your thoughts, before you launch out alone into the ocean of Paris. Recollect the obfervations that you have yourself made upon mankind; compare and connect them with my inftructions, and then act fyftematically and confequentially from them. Lay your little plan now, which you will hereafter extend and improve by X

your own obfervations, and by the advice of thofe who can never mean to miflead you-I mean Mr. Harte and myself.

LETTER XCV.

Travellers ought to pay Attention to all they go to fee... The Genteel in Drefs...Firmness in Demeanour.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

London, May the 24th.

I RECEIVED yesterday your letter of the 7th, from

Naples, to which place I find you have travelled claffically, critically, and da virtuojo. You did right, for whatever is worth feeing at all is worth feeing well, and better than most people fee it. It is a poor and frivolous excufe, when any thing curious is talked of, that one has feen, to fay, I faw it, but really I did not much mind it.' Why did they go to fee it, if they would not mind it? Or why would they not mind it when they faw it ?-Now that you are at Naples, you pafs part of your time there, in the court, and the best companies.

Mr. Harte informs that you are clothed in fumptuous apparel; a young fellow fhould be fo, efpecially abroad, where fine clothes are fo generally the fashion. Next to their being fine, they should be well made, and worn eafily; for a man is only the lefs genteel for a fine coat, if in wearing it he shows a regard for it, and is not as easy in it as if it was a plain one.

I thank you for your drawing, which I am impatient to fee, and which I fhall hang up in a new gallery that I am building at Blackheath, and very fond of, but I am ftill more impatient for another copy, which I wonder I have not yet received-I mean the copy of your countenance. I believe, were that a whole length, it would ftill fall a good deal fhort of the dimenfions of the drawing after Dominichino, which you Lay is about eight feet high and I take you, as well as