fary as the matter itself. Let awkward, ungraceful, inelegant, and dull fellows, fay what they will in behalf of their folid matter, and strong reafonings; and let them defpife all thofe graces and ornaments which engage the fenfes and captivate the heart; they will find (though they will poffibly wonder why) that their rough unpolished inatter, and their unadorned, coarfe, but ftrong arguments, will neither please nor perfuade; but, on the contrary, will tire out attention, and excite dif guft. We are fo made, we love to be pleased, better than to be informed; information is, in a certain degree, mortifying, as it implies our previous ignorance; it must be fweetened to be palatable.

To bring this directly to you; know that no man can make a figure in this country, but by parliament. Your fate depends upon your fuccefs there as a speaker and take my word for it, that fuccefs turns much more upon manner than matter. Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Murray the folicitor-general, uncle to Lord Stormont, are, beyond comparifon, the beft fpeakers. Why? Only because they are the best orators. They alone can inflame or quiet the houfe; they alone are fo attended to, in that numerous and noify affembly, that you might hear a pin fall while either of them is fpeaking. Is it that their matter is better, or their arguments itronger than other people's? Does the houfe expect extraor dinary information from them? Not in the leaft; but the house expects pleasure from them, and thetelore attends; finds it, and therefore approves. Mr. Pitt, particularly, has very little parliamentary knowledge; his matter is generally flimfy, and his arguments often -weak but his eloquence is fuperior, his action graceful, his enunciation juft and harmonious; his periods are well turned, and every word he makes ufe of is the very best, and the molt expreflive, that can be used in that place. This, and not his matter made him paymafter, in fpite of both king and minifters. From this, draw the obvious conclufion. The fame thing holds full as true in conversation; where even trifles elegantly expreffed, well looked, and accompanied with graceful action, will ever pleafe, beyond all the home-fpun,

nadorned fenfe in the world. Reflect, on one fide, how you feel within yourfelf, while you are forced to fuffer the tedious, muddy and ill-turned narration of fome awkward fellow, even though the fact may be interefting; and on the other hand, with what pleafure you attend to the relation of a much lefs interefting matter, when elegantly expreffed, genteely turned, and gracefully delivered. By attending carefully to all thefe agrémens in your daily converfation, they will become habitual to you, before you come into parliament; and you will have nothing then to do, but to raise them a little when you come there. I would wish you to be fo attentive to this object, that I would not have you speak to your footman but in the very best words that the subject admits of, be the language which it will. Think of your words, and of their arrangement, before you speak; chufe the most elegant, ind place them in the beft order. Confult your own ar, to avoid cacophony; and what is very near as bad, nonotony. Think alfo of your gefture and looks, when you are speaking even upon the most trifling subects. The fame things, differently expreffed, looked, ind delivered, ceafe to be the fame things. The moft affionate lover in the world cannot make a stronger leclaration of love, than the bourgeois gentilhomme + does n this happy form of words, Mourir d'amour me font belle rarquife vos beaux yeux ! I defy any body to fay more; and yet I would advife nobody to fay that: and I would ecommend to you, rather to fmother and conceal your paffion entirely, than to reveal it in these words. Seriously, this holds in every thing, as well as in that udicrous instance. The French, to do them justice, ttend very minutely to the purity, the correctness, and he elegancy of their style in converfation, and in their Bien narrer is an object of their study; and hough they fometimes carry it to affectation, they ever fink into inelegancy, which is much the worst

etters.

Citizen turned gentleman, the character in Moliere from which foote drew his Commiffary.

Beautiful Marchioness, your fine eyes caufe me to die of love
To narrate well,

312

extreme of the two. Obferve them, and form your French style upon theirs ; for elegancy in one language will re-produce itfelf in all. I knew a young man, who being juft elected a member of parliament, was laughed at for being discovered, through the key-hole of his chamber-door, fpeaking to himfelf in the glafs, and forming his looks and gestures. I could not join in that laugh; but, on the contrary, thought him much wifer than thofe who laughed at him; for he knew the importance of thofe little graces in a public affembly, and they did not. Your little perfon (which I am told by the way is not ill turned) whether in a laced coat, or a blanket, is fpecifically the fame; but yet, I believe, you chufe to wear the former: and you are in The wort the right, for the fake of pleating more. bred man in Europe, if a lady let fall her fan, would" certainly take it up and give it her: the best-bred man The difference however in Europe could do no more.

would be confiderable; the latter would pleafe by doing it gracefully; the former would be laughed at for doing it awkwardly. I repeat it, and repeat it again, and shall never cease repeating it to you-air, manners, graces, ftyle, elegancy, and all thofe om ments, mu now be the objects of your attention; it is now, or never, that you muft acquire them. Poft pone, therefore, all other confiderations; make them have not one moment to now your ferious ftudy: you lofe. The folid and the ornamental united are un doubtedly beft; but were I reduced to make an option, hould, without hesitation, chufe the latter.

LETTER CXII.

Love and Respect. Martial's celebrated Epigram paraphrafed.. Dr. Johnjon delineated...University of Cambridge... Bill for reforming the Calendar.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

THIS

HIS epigram in Martial,

London, February the 28th

Non amo te, Sabidi, nec poffum dicere qua e,
Hoc tantum poffum di ere, non amo te ;

has puzzled a great many people, who cannot conceive how it is poffible not to love any body, and yet not to know the reafon why. I think I conceive Martial's meaning very clearly, though the nature of epigram, which is to be fhort, would not allow him to explain ic more fully; and I take it to be this: "O Sabidis, you are a very worthy, deferving man; you have a thoufand good qualities, you have a great deal of learning; Leiteem, I refpect, but for the foul of me I cannot love you, though I cannot particularly fay why. You are not amiable; you have not thofe engaging manners, thofe pleafing attentions, thofe graces, and that addrefs, which are abfolutely neceffary to please, though impoffible to define. I cannot fay it is this or that particular thing that hinders me from loving you, it is the whole together; and upon the whole you are not agreeable." How often have I, in the courfe of my life, found myself in this fituation, with regard to many

of
my acquaintance, whom I have honored and ref-
pected, without being able to love! I did not know,
why, becaufe, when one is young, one does not take
the trouble, nor allow one's-felf the time, to analife
one's fentiments, and to trace them up to their fource.
But fubfequent obfervation and reflection have taught
me why. There is a man † whofe moral character

Thus happily rendered in English:
I do not love thee Dr. Fell,
The reafon why I cannot tell;
But I don't love thee Dr. Fell

Suppoled to be Dr. Johnfon.

C c

deep learning, and fuperior parts, I acknowledge, admire, and refpect; but whom it is fo impoffible for me to love, that I am almost in a fever whenever I am in his company. His figure (without being deformed) feems made to difgrace or ridicule the common ftructure of the human body. His legs and arms are nev er in the pofition, which, according to the fituation of his body, they ought to be in; but conftantly employed in committing acts of hoftility upon the graces. He throws any where, but down his throat, whatever he means to drink; and only mangles what he means Inattentive to all the regards of focial life, he mif-times or mif-places every thing. He difputes with heat, and indifcriminately; mindlefs of the rank, character, and fituation of thofe with whom he dif putes abfolutely ignorant of the feveral gradations of familiarity or refpect, he is exactly the fame to his fuperiors, his equals, and his inferiors; and therefore, by a neceffary confequence, abfurd to two of the three. Is it poffible to love fuch a man? No. The utmoft! can do for him, is to confider him as a refpectable Hottentot.

to carve.

I remember, that when I came from Cambridge, I had acquired, among the pedants of that illiberal feminary, a faucinefs of literature, a turn to fatire and contempt, and a strong tendency to argumentation and contradiction. But I had been but a very little while in the world, before I found that this would by no means do; and I immediately adopted the oppofite character I concealed what learning I had; I ap plauded often, without approving; and I yielded commonly, without conviction. Suavitèr in mode was my law and my prophet; and if I pleafed (between you and me) it was much more owing to that, than to any fuperior knowledge or merit of my own. A-propos, the word pleasing puts one always in mind of Lady Hervey: pray tell her, that I declare her refponfible to me for your pleafing that I confider her as a pleafing Falftaf who not only pleafes herself, but is the caufe of pleaf ing in others: that I know the can make any thing of any body; and that, as your governefs, if the does not

: