terated good policy and right reafoning. In fuch fituations I would be more particularly ard noblement civil, eafy, and frank, with the man whose defigns I traverfed; this is commonly called generofity and magnanimity, but is, in truth, good fenfe and policy. The manner is often as important as the matter, fometimes more fo; a favour may make an enemy, and an injury may make a friend, according to the different manner in which they are feverally done. The countenance, the addrefs, the words, the enunciation, the graces, add great efficacy to the fuaviter in modo, and great dignity to the fortiter in re; and confequently they deferve the utmost attention.

From what has been faid, I conclude with this obfervation, that gentleness of manners, with firmness of mind, is a fhort, but full defcription of human perfection, on this fide of religious and moral duties: that you may be seriously convinced of this truth, and fhow it in your life and converfation, is the most fincere and ardent wish of yours.'

We shall now add part of another Letter, chiefly for the fake of a parliamentary anecdote, which will be acceptable to our more scientific Readers.

I acquainted you in a former letter, that I had brought a bill into the Houfe of Lords for correcting and reforming our present calendar, which is the Julian; and for adopting the Gregorian. I will now give you a more particular account of that affair; from which reflections will naturally occur to you, that I hope may be useful, and which I fear you have not made. It was notorious, that the Julian calendar was erroneous, and had overcharged the folar year with eleven days. Pope Gregory the 13th corrected this error; his reformed calendar was immediately received by all the Catholic powers of Europe, and afterwards adopted by all the Proteftant ones, except Ruffia, Sweden, and England. It was not, in my opinion, very honourable for England to remain in a gross and avowed error, efpecially in fuch company; the inconveniency of it was likewife felt by all those who had foreign correfpondences, whether political or mercantile. I determined, therefore, to attempt the reformation; [ confulted the best lawyers, and the most skilful aftronomers, and we cooked up a bill for that purpofe. But then my difficulty began: I was to bring in this bill, which was neceffarily composed of law jargon and astronomical calculations, to both which I am an utter tranger. However, it was abfolutely neceffary to make the House of Lords think that I knew something of the matter; and alfo, to make them believe that they knew fomething of it themfelves, which they do not. For my own part, I could juft as foon have talked Celtic or Sclavonian to them, as aftronomy, and they would have understood me full as well: fo I refolved to do better than speak to the purpose, and to please instead of informing them. I gave them, therefore, only an historical account of calendars, from the Egyptian down to the Gregorian, amusing them now and then with little epifodes; but I was particularly attentive to the choice of my words, to the harmony and roundness of my periods, to my elocution, to my action. This fucceeded, and ever will fucceed; they thought I informed, because I pleased them: and many of them said, that I had

made

made the whole very clear to them; when, God knows, I had not even attempted it. Lord Macclesfield, who had the greatest share in forming the bill, and who is one of the greatest mathematicians and aftronomers in Europe, fpoke afterwards, with infinite knowledge, and all the clearness that fo intricate a matter would admit of: but as his words, his periods, and his utterance, were not near fo good as mine, the preference was most unanimously, though most unjustly, given to me. This will ever be the cafe; every numerous affembly is mob, let the individuals who compofe it be what they will. Mere reafon and good fenfe is never to be talked to a mob: their paßions, their fentiments, their fenfes, and their feeming interefts, are alone to be applied to. Understanding they have collectively none; but they have ears and eyes, which must be flattered and feduced; and this can only be done by eloquence, tuneful periods, graceful action, and all the various parts of oratory.

• When you come into the Houfe of Commons, if you imagine that speaking plain and unadorned fenfe and reason will do your bufinefs, you will find yourself moft grofly mistaken. As a speaker, you will be ranked only according to your eloquence, and by no means according to your matter; every body knows the matter almost alike, but few can adorn it. I was early convinced of the importance and powers of eloquence; and from that moment I applied myfelf to it. I refolved not to utter one word, even in common converfation, that fhould not be the most expreffive, and the moft elegant, that the language could fupply me with for that purpose; by which means I have acquired fuch a certain degree of habitual cloquence, that I muft now really take fome pains, if I would exprefs myself very inelegantly, I want to inculcate this known truth into you, which you feem by no means to be convinced of yet, that ornaments are at prefent your only objects. Your fole bufinefs now, is to fhine, not to weigh. Weight without luftre is lead. You had better talk trifles elegantly, to the mot trifling woman, than coarse inelegant fenfe, to the most solid man; you had better return a dropped fan genteely, than give a thousand pounds awkwardly and you had better refufe a favour gracefully, than grant it clumfily. Manner is all, in every thing: it is by manner only that you can please, and confequently rife. All your Greek will never advance you from fecretary to envoy, or from envoy to embaffador; but your addrefs, your manner, your air, if good, very prebably may. Marcel can be of much more use to you than Aristotle. I would, upon my word, much rather that you had Lord Belingbroke's ftyle and eloquence, in fpeaking and writing, than all the learning of the Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, and the two Universities united.

:

Having mentioned Lord Bolingbroke's ftyle, which is, undoubt edly, infinitely fuperior to any body's; I would have you read his works, which you have, over and over again, with particular atten tion to his style. Tranfcribe, imitate, emulate it, if poffible: that would be of real ufe to you in the House of Commons, in negotiations, in converfation; with that, you may justly hope to please, to perfuade, to feduce, to impofe; and you will fail in thofe articles, in proportion as you fall short of it. Upon the whole, lay afide,

5

during

during your year's refidence at Paris, all thoughts of all that dult fellows call folid, and exert your utmost care to acquire what people of fashion call fhining. Prenez l'éclat et le brillant d'un galant bomme,'

Here we cannot help obferving, by the way, how extremely folicitous the noble preceptor appears, not in the above-quoted letter only, but in many other parts of the feries, to qualify his Son for making an agreeable figure in the Houfe of Commons,without once attempting to point out to him the great line of his duty there, or fhewing him the proper objects of his attention and regard, not merely as a Senator, but as an ENGLISHMAN. Here and there, indeed, we meet with a few political hints; but they are fuch as might be expected from a man emulous rather of the character of a Machiavel, than of an Hampden or a Trenchard.

It was, perhaps, from this and other obvious confiderations, that a certain great Moralift is faid to have been provoked to cenfure the prefent publication, as fitted only to inculcate "the morals of a whore, with the manners of a dancingmafter."

With regard to elegance of manners, however, we presume that every Connoiffeur in what is juftly esteemed Politeness, will totally diffent from the opinion of the learned Moralist; who will not, we apprehend, be allowed, by his acquaintance, to decide on a subject, on which he may be deemed as little qualified to judge, as a Rhinoceros would be, with respect to the graceful agility of an Antelope.

Our Readers will, by this time, be ready to conclude that Lord C.'s paffion for pleafing had entirely taken poffeffion of the whole man; and they will not be mistaken. He did not, indeed, make any fecret of his extreme devotion to les bienfeances. In his forty-firft letter he has, himself, curiously and frankly developed this principal part of his character.

As I open myfelf, without the leaft referve, whenever I think that my doing fo can be of any ufe to you, I will give you a fhort account of myself. When I first came into the world (which was at the age you are of now, fo that (by the way) you have got the start of me in that important article by two or three years at least) at nineteen, I left the university of Cambridge, where I was an abfolute pedant: when I talked my beft, I quoted Horace; when I aimed at being facetious, I quoted Martial; and when I had a mind to be a finé gentleman, I talked Ovid. I was convinced that none but the ancients had common fenfe; that the Claffics contained every thing that was either neceffary, ufeful, or ornamental to men; and I was not without thoughts of wearing the toga virilis of the Romans, inftead of the vulgar and illiberal drefs of the moderns. With thefe excellent notions, I went fir to the Hague, where, by the help of

feveral

feveral letters of recommendation, I was foon introduced into all the best company; and where I very foon difcovered, that I was totally mistaken in almoft every one notion I had entertained. Fortunately, I had a strong defire to please (the mixed refult of good-nature, and a vanity by no means blameable) and was fenfible, that I had nothing but the defire. I therefore refolved, if poffible, to acquire the means too. I ftudied attentively and minutely the drefs, the air, the manner, the addrefs, and the turn of converfation of all thofe whom I found to be the people in fashion, and moft generally allowed to please. I imitated them as well as I could: if I heard that one man was reckoned remarkably genteel, I carefully watched his dress, motions, and attitudes, and formed my own upon them. When I heard of another, whofe converfation was agreeable and engaging, I liftened and attended to the turn of it. I addreffed myself, though de très mauvaife grace, to all the most fashionable fine ladies; confeffed, and laughed with them at my own awkwardness and rawness, recommending myself as an object for them to try their skill in forming. By thefe means, and with a paflionate defire of pleasing every body, I came by degrees to please fome; and, I can affure you, that what little figure I have made in the world, has been much more owing to that paffionate defire I had of pleafing univerfally, than to any intrinsic merit, or found knowledge I might ever have been maiter of. My paflion for pleafing was fo ftrong (and I am very glad it was fo) that I own to you fairly, I wifhed to make every woman I faw, in love with me, and every man I met with, admire me. Without this paffion, for the object, I fhould never have been fo attentive to the means; and I own I cannot conceive how it is poffible for any man of good nature and good fenfe to be without this paffion. Does not good-nature incline us to please all those we converfe with, of whatever rank or ftation they may be? And does not good fenfe, and common obfervation, fhow of what infinite ufe it is to please? Oh! but one may please by the good qualities of the heart, and the knowledge of the head, without that fashionable air, addrefs, and manner, which is mere tinfel. I deny it. A man may be esteemed and refpected, but I defy him to please without them. Moreover, at your age, I would not have contented myself with barely pleafing; I wanted to fhine, and to diftinguish myself in the world as a man of fashion and gallantry, as well as bufinefs. And that ambition or vanity, call it what you please, was a right one; it hurt nobody, and made me exert whatever talents I had. It is the spring of a thousand right and good things,'

The knowledge of the world was undoubtedly his Lordship's forte; and in his 57th Letter we have fome ftriking obfervations on the fubject:

My dear Friend,

April 30, 1752.

• Avoir du monde is, in my opinion, a very juft and happy expreffion, for having addrefs, manners, and for knowing how to behave properly in all companies; and it implies very truly, that a man, who hath not thofe accomplishments, is not of the world. Without them, the best parts are inefficient, civility is abfurd, and freedom offenfive. A learned parfon, rufting in his cell, at Oxford or Cam

bridge,

bridge, will reafon admirably well upon the nature of man; will profoundly analyfe the head, the heart, the reafon, the will, the paffions, the fenfes, the fentiments, and all thofe fubdivifions of we know not what; and yet, unfortunately, he knows nothing of man: for he hath not lived with him; and is ignorant of all the various modes, habits, prejudices, and tafles, that always influence, and often determine him. He views man as he does colours in Sir Ifaac Newton's prifm, where only the capital ones are feen; but an experienced dyer knows all their various fhades and gradations, together with the refult of their feveral mixtures. Few men are of one plain, decided colour; moft are mixed, fhaded, and blended; and vary as much, from different fituations, as changeable filks do from different lights. The man qui à du monde knows all this from his own experience and obfervation: the conceited, cloistered philofopher knows nothing of it from his own theory; his practice is abfurd and improper; and he acts as awkwardly as a man would dance, who had never feen others dance, nor learned of a dancing mafter; but who had only ftudied the notes by which dances are now pricked down, as well as tunes. Obferve and imitate, then, the addrefs, the arts, and the manners of thofe qui ont du monde: fee by what methods they firft make, and afterwards improve impreffions in their favour. Thofe impreffions are much oftener owing to little causes, than tó intrinfic merit; which is lefs volatile, and hath not fo fudden an effect. Strong minds have undoubtedly an afcendant over weak ones, as Galigai Maréchale d'Ancre very juftly obferved, when, to the difgrace and reproach of thofe times, the was executed for having governed Mary of Medicis by the arts of witchcraft and magic. But then afcendant is to be gained by degrees, and by thofe arts only which experience, and the knowledge of the world teaches; for few are mean enough to be bullied, though most are weak enough to be bubbled. I have often feen people of fuperior, governed by people of much inferior parts, without knowing or even fufpecting that they were fo governed. This can only happen, when thofe people of inferior parts have more worldly dexterity and experience, than thofe they govern. They fee the weak and unguarded part, and apply to it: they take it, and all the rest follows. Would you gain either men or women, and every man of fenfe defires to gain both, il faut du monde. You have had more opportunities than ever any man had, at your age, of acquiring ce monde; you have been in the beft companies in most countries, at an age when others have hardly been in any company at all. You are maler of all thofe languages, which John Trott feldom fpeaks at all, and never well, confequently you need be a ftranger no where. This is the way, and the only way, of having du monde; but if you have it not, and have till any coarfe rufticity about you, may one not apply to you the rufticus expectat of Horace?

This knowledge of the world teaches us more particularly two things, both of which are of infinite confequence, and to neither of which nature inclines us; I mean, the command of our temper, and of our countenance. A man who has no monde is inflamed with anger, or annihilated with fhame, at every difagreeable incident: the one makes him act and talk like a madman, the other makes REV. June, 1774• Hh him

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