第174章 LETTER CXVII(2)
Thus I have,with the truth and freedom of the tenderest affection,told you all your defects,at least all that I know or have heard of.Thank God,they are all very curable;they must be cured,and I am sure,you will cure them.That once done,nothing remains for you to acquire,or for me to wish you,but the turn,the manners,the address,and the GRACES,of the polite world;which experience,observation,and good company;will insensibly give you.Few people at your age have read,seen,and known,so much as you have;and consequently few are so near as yourself to what I call perfection,by which I only,mean being very near as well as the best.Far,therefore,from being discouraged by what you still want,what you already have should encourage you to attempt,and convince you that by attempting you will inevitably obtain it.The difficulties which you have surmounted were much greater than any you have now to encounter.Till very lately,your way has been only through thorns and briars;the few that now remain are mixed with roses.
Pleasure is now the principal remaining part of your education.It will soften and polish your manners;it will make you pursue and at last overtake the GRACES.Pleasure is necessarily reciprocal;no one feels,who does not at the same time give it.To be pleased one must please.
What pleases you in others,will in general please them in you.Paris is indisputably the seat of the GRACES;they will even court you,if you are not too coy.Frequent and observe the best companies there,and you will soon be naturalized among them;you will soon find how particularly attentive they are to the correctness and elegance of their language,and to the graces of their enunciation:they would even call the understanding of a man in question,who should neglect or not know the infinite advantages arising from them.'Narrer,reciter,declamer bien',are serious studies among them,and well deserve to be so everywhere.
The conversations,even among the women,frequently turn upon the elegancies and minutest delicacies of the French language.An 'enjouement',a gallant turn,prevails in all their companies,to women,with whom they neither are,nor pretend to be,in love;but should you (as may very possibly happen)fall really in love there with some woman of fashion and sense (for I do not suppose you capable of falling in love with a strumpet),and that your rival,without half your parts or knowledge,should get the better of you,merely by dint of manners,'enjouement,badinage',etc.,how would you regret not having sufficiently attended to those accomplishments which you despised as superficial and trifling,but which you would then find of real consequence in the course of the world!And men,as well as women,are taken by those external graces.Shut up your books,then,now as a business,and open them only as a pleasure;but let the great book of the world be your serious study;read it over and over,get it by heart,adopt its style,and make it your own.
When I cast up your account as it now stands,I rejoice to see the balance so much in your favor;and that the items per contra are so few,and of such a nature,that they may be very easily cancelled.By way of debtor and creditor,it stands thus:
Creditor.By French Debtor.To English German Enunciation Italian Manners Latin Greek Logic Ethics History |Naturae Jus |Gentium |Publicum This,my dear friend,is a very true account;and a very encouraging one for you.A man who owes so little can clear it off in a very little time,and,if he is a prudent man,will;whereas a man who,by long negligence,owes a great deal,despairs of ever being able to pay;and therefore never looks into his account at all.
When you go to Genoa,pray observe carefully all the environs of it,and view them with somebody who can tell you all the situations and operations of the Austrian army,during that famous siege,if it deserves to be called one;for in reality the town never was besieged,nor had the Austrians any one thing necessary for a siege.If Marquis Centurioni,who was last winter in England,should happen to be there,go to him with my compliments,and he will show you all imaginable civilities.
I could have sent you some letters to Florence,but that I knew Mr.Mann would be of more use to you than all of them.Pray make him my compliments.Cultivate your Italian,while you are at Florence,where it is spoken in its utmost purity,but ill pronounced.
Pray save me the seed of some of the best melons you eat,and put it up dry in paper.You need not send it me;but Mr.Harte will bring it in his pocket when he comes over.I should likewise be glad of some cuttings of the best figs,especially la Pica gentile and the Maltese;but as this is not the season for them,Mr.Mann will,I dare say,undertake that commission,and send them to me at the proper time by Leghorn.Adieu.Endeavor to please others,and divert yourself as much as ever you can,in 'honnete et galant homme'.
P.S.I send you the inclosed to deliver to Lord Rochford,upon your arrival at Turin.