city, in all they do; are indefatigable, and quick. The difference is, that a young fellow of parts exerts all thofe happy difpofitions in the purfuit of proper objects; endeavours to excel in the folid, and in the Thowish parts of life: whereas a filly puppy, or a dull. rogue, throws away all his youth and fpirits upon trifles, when he is ferious; or upon difgraceful vices while he aims at pleasures. This, I am fure, will not be your cafe; your good fenfe and your good couduct hitherto are your guarantees with me for the future. Continue only at Paris as you have begun, and your stay there will make you, what I have alwa wifhed you to be-as near perfection as our nature permits.

Adieu, my dear; remember to write to me once a week, not as to a father, but without referve, as to a friend.

LETTER CVII.

Dignity of Character...Conftitution and Commerce of England... Oldcastle's Remarks on the Hiftory of England...Character of

a Well-bred Man.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

London, January the 14th.

AMONG the many good things Mr. Harte has told

me of you, two in particular gave me great pleasure.. The first, that you are exceedingly careful and jealous of the dignity of your character: that is the fure and olid foundation upon which you must both stand and ife. A man's moral character is a more delicate hing than a woman's reputation of chaftity.. A falfe tep may poffibly be forgiven her, and her character nay be clarified by fubfequent and continued good conluct: but a man's moral character once tainted is irre-. arably destroyed. The fecond was, that you had acjuired a moft correct and extenfive knowledge of foeign affairs; fuch as the history, the treaties, and the orms of government of the feveral countries of Euope. This fort of knowledge, little attended to here..

will make you not only useful, but neceffary, in your future deftination, and carry you very far. He added. that you wanted fome books relative to our laws and conftitution, our colonies, and our commerce-of which you know lefs than of thofe of any other part of Europe. I will fend you what fhort books I can find of that fort, to give you a general notion of thofe things; but you cannot have time to go into their depths at prefent, you cannot now engage with new folios; you and I will refer the conftitutional part of this country to our meeting here, when we will enter

only into it, and read the necefiary books together. In the mean time, go on in the courfe you are in, of foreign matters; converfe with minifters and others of every country, watch the tranfactions of every court, and endeavour to trace them up to their fource.

I will fend you, by the first opportunity, a fhort book written by Lord Bolingbroke, under the name of Sir John Oldcastle, containing remarks upon the History of England; which will give you a clear general no tion of our conftitution, and which will ferve you, at the fame time (like all Lord Bolingbroke's works) for a model of eloquence and ftyle. I will alfo fend you Sir Jofiah Childe's little book upon trade, which may properly be called the Commercial Grammar. He lays down the true principles of commerce; and his conclufions from them are generally very juft..

Since you turn your thoughts a little towards trade and commerce, which I am very glad you do, I will recommend a French book to you, that you will eafly get at Paris, and which I take to be the best book in the world of that kind I mean the Dictionnaire de Commerce de Savary. 1, in three volumes in folio; where you will find every thing that relates to trade, commerce, fpecie, exchange, &c. moft clearly stated; and not only relative to France, but to the whole world. You will eafily fuppofe, that I do not advise you to read fuch a book toute de fuit; but I only mean that you fhould have it at hand, to have recourfe to occafionally.

Savary's Dictionary of Commerce..

With this great stock of both useful and ornamental knowledge, which you have already acquired, and which, by your application and industry, you are daily increafing, you will lay fuch a folid foundation of future figure and fortune, that, if you complete it by all the accomplishments of manners, graces, &c. I know nothing which you may not aim at, and, in time, hope

for.

Your great point at prefent at Paris, to which all other confiderations must give way, is to become entirely a man of fashion; to be well-bred without ceremony, eafy without negligence, fteady and intrepid with modefty, genteel without affectation, infinuating without meannefs, cheerful without being noify, frank without indifcretion, and fecret without myfterioufnefs; to know the proper time and place for whatever you fay or do, and do it with an air of condition: all this is not fo foon nor fo eafily learned as people imagine, but requires obfervation and time. The world is an immenfe folio, which demands a great deal of time and attention to be read and understood as it ought to be you have not yet read above four or five pages of it; and you will have but barely time to dip now and then into other lefs important books.

:

Lord Albemarle has (I know) written to a friend of his here, that you do not frequent him fo much as he expected and defired ; that he fears fomebody or other has given you wrong impreffions of him; and that I may poffibly think, from your being feldom at his houfe, that he has been wanting in his attentions to you. I told the perfon who told me this, that, on the contrary, you feemed, by your letters to me, to be extremely pleafed with Lord Albemarle's behaviour to you; but that you were obliged to give up dining abroad, during your courfe of experimental philofophy. I gueffed the true reafon, which I believe was, that, as no French people frequent his house, you rather chofe to dine at other places, where you were likely to meet with better company than your own countrymen; and you were in the right of it. However, I would have you fhow no fhynels to Lord Albemarle but go to him, and dine with him oftener than it

be you would wifh-for the fake of having him fpeak well of you here when he returns. He is a good deal in fashion here, and his puffing you (to use an awkward expreffion) before you return here, will be of great ufe to you afterwards. People in general take characters, as they do moft things, upon truft, rather than be at the trouble of examining them themfelves; and the decifions of four or five fafhionable people, in every place, are final-more particularly with regard to characters, which all can hear, and but few judge of. Do not mention the leaft of this to any mortal, and take care that Lord Albemarle do not suspect that you know any thing of the matter.

Lord Huntingdon and Lord Stormont are, I hear, arrived at Paris; you have, doubtlefs, feen them. Lord Stormont is well fpoken of here; however, in your connections, if you form any with them, fhow rather a preference to Lord Huntingdon, for reasons which you will easily guefs.

Mr. Harte goes this week to Cornwall, to take poffeffion of his living; he has been installed at Windfor he will return hither in about a month, when your literary correfpondence with him will be regularly car ried on. Your mutual concern at parting was a good fign for both.-Adieu..

LETTER CVII.

Docility...Necefity of conforming to the Manners of Foreign ers... Suavity of Manners...Mode of electing the King of the Romans...Ujes of the Italian and German Languages. London, January the 21

MY DEAR FRIEND,

IN all my letters from Paris, I have the pleasure of

finding, among many other good things, your docility mentioned with emphafis: this is the fure way of im proving in those things, which you only want. It is true, they are little, but it is as true too that they are neceffary things. As they are mere matters of ufage and mode, it is no difgrace for any body of your age

to be ignorant of them; and the most compendious way of learning them is, fairly to avow your ignorance, and to confult thofe, who, from long ufage and experience, know them best. Good fenfe, and good nature, fuggeft civility in general; but, in good-breeding, there are a thousand little delicacies, which are established only by custom; and it is thefe little elegancies of manners which diftinguish a courtier, and a man of fashion, from the vulgar. I am affured, by different people, that your air is already much improved; and one of my correfpondents makes you the true French compliment of laying, Jofe vous promettre qu'il fera bientôt comme un de nous autres +. However unbecoming this fpeech may be in the mouth of a Frenchman, I am very glad that they think it applicable to you; for I would have you not only adopt, but rival, the best manners and ufages of the place you are at, be they what they will; that is the verfatility of manners, which is fo useful in the courfe of the world, Chufe your models well at Paris; and then rival them in their own way. There are fashionable words, phrases, and even geftures, at Paris, which are called du bon ton ; not to mention certaines petites politeffes et attentions, qui ne font rien en elles mêmes, which fashion has rendered neceffary. Make yourself master of all these things; and to fuch a degree as to make the French fay, qu'an diroit que c'est un François §; and when hereafter you shall be at other courts, do the fame thing there, and conform to the fashionable manners and ufage of the place; that is what the French themselves are not able to do: wherever they go, they retain their own manners, as thinking them the beft; but granting them to be fo, they are still in the wrong, not to conform to those of the place. One would defire to please, wherever one is; and nothing is more innocently flattering, than an approbation, and an imitation of the people one converfes with.

I dare venture to promife that he will foon be like ourselves. Certain little politeneffes and attentions, which are nothing in themselves.

That he may be called a Frenchman,