played fair; and in political bufinefs, you always play with fharpers, to whom, at leaft, you fhould give no fair advantages.

Make yourself abfolute mafter, therefore, of your temper, and your countenance; fo far, at least, as that no visible change do appear in either, whatever you may feel inwardly. This may be difficult, but it is by no means impoffible; and, as a man of fenfe never attempts impoffibilities on one hand, on the other he is never difcouraged by difficulties: on the contrary, hè redoubles his induftry and his diligence, he perfeveres, and infallibly prevails at laft. In any point, which prudence bids you purfue, and which a manifeft utility attends, let difficulties only animate your industry, not deter you from the purfuit. If one way has failed, try another; be active, perfevere, and you will conquer. The time fhould likewife be judicioufly chofen: : every man has his mollia tempora, but that is far from being all day long; and you would chufe your time very ill, if you applied to a man about one bufinefs, when his head was full of another, or when his heart was full of grief, anger, or any other difagreeable fentiment.

In order to judge of the infide of others, ftudy your own; for men in general are very much alike ; and though one has one prevailing paffion, and another has another, yet their operations are much the fame; and whatever engages or difgufts, pleafes or offends you, in others, will, mutatis mutandis, engage, difguft, please, or offend others, in you. Obferve, with the utmoft attention, all the operations of your own mind, the nature of your paflions, and the various motives that determine your will; and you may, in a great degree, know all mankind. For inftance; For inftance; do you find yourself hurt and mortified, when another makes you feel his fuperiority, and your own inferiority, in knowledge, parts, rank, or fortune? You will certainly take great care not to make a perfon, whofe good will, good word, intereft, efteem, or friendship, you would gain, feel that fuperiority in you, in cafe you have it. If disagreeable infinuations, fly fneers, or repeated con

tradictions, teaze and irritate you, would you use them, where you wished to engage and please? Surely not and I hope you with to engage and pleafe, almoft univerfally. The temptation of faying a fmart or witty thing, or bon mot, and the malicious applaufe with which it is commonly received, has made people who can fay them, and ftill oftener people who think they can, but cannot, and yet try, more enemies, and implacable ones too, than any one other thing that I know of. When fuch things, then, fhall happen to be faid. at your expenfe (as fometimes they certainly will) reflect feriously upon the fentiments of uneafinefs, anger, and refentment, which they excite in you; and confider whether it can be prudent, by the fame means, to excite the fame fentiments in others, against you. It is a decided folly to lose a friend for a jeft; but, in my mind, it is not a much lefs degree of folly, to make an enemy of an indifferent, and neutral perfon, for the fake of a bon met. When things of this kind happen to be faid of you, the most prudent way is to feem not to fuppofe that they are meant at you, but to avoid fhowing whatever degree of anger you may feel inwardly; and, fhould they be fo plain, that you cannot be fuppofed ignorant of their meaning, to join in the laugh of the company againft yourfelf; acknowledge the hit to be a fair one, and the jeft a good one, and play off the whole thing in feeming good-humour: but by no means reply in the fame way; which only fhows that you are hurt, and publifhes the victory which you might have concealed.

As the female part of the world has fome influence, and often too much, over the male, your conduct with regard to women (I mean women of character, for I cannot fuppofe you capable of converfing with any others) deferves fome thare in your reflections. They are a numerous and refpectable body their hatred would be as prejudicial, as their friendship would be advantageous to you.

This torn fheet, which I did not observe when I began upon it, as it alters the figure, fhortens too the length of my letter. It may very well afford it: my

anxiety for you carries me infenfibly to thefe lengths God bless you, child!

LETTER LXXIII.

Obfervations on Venice...Mufic...The Fine Arts.

BEAR BOY,

London, June the 224

THE outfide of your letter of the 7th, directed by

your own hand, gave me more pleasure than the infide of any other letter ever did.

I approve of your going to Venice, as much as I difapproved of your going to Switzerland.

The time you will probably pafs at Venice, will allow you to make yourfelf matter of that intricate and fingular form of government, of which few of our travellers know any thing. Read, afk, and fee every thing that is relative to it. There are, likewife, many valuable remains of the remoteft antiquity, and many fine pieces of the antico moderno; all which deferve a different fort of attention from that which your countrymen commonly give them. They go to fee them, as they go to fee the lions, and kings on horfeback, at the Tower here-only to say that they have feen them. You will, I am fure, view them in another light; you will confider them as you would a poem, to which indeed they are akin. You will obferve, whether the feulptor has animated his ftone, or the painter his canvas, into the juft expreffion of thofe fentiments and paffions, which fhould characterife and mark their feveral figures. You will examine, likewife, whether, in their groupes, there be an unity of action, or proper relation ; a truth of drefs and manners. Sculpture and painting are very juftly called liberal arts; a lively and ftrong imagination, together with a juft obfervation, being abfolutely neceflary to excel in either: which, in my opinion, is by no means the cafe of mufic, though called a liberal art, and now in Italy placed even above the other two: a proof of the decline of that country, The Venetian fchool produced many

great painters, fuch as Paul Veronefe, Titian, Palma, &c. by whom you will fee, as well in private houses as in churches, very fine pieces. The Laft Supper, by Paul Veronefe, in the church of St. George, is reckon ed his capital performance, and deferves your attention; as does alfo the famous picture of the Cornaro family, by Titian. A tafte of fculpture and painting, is in my mind, as becoming, as a tafte of fiddling and piping is unbecoming a man of fashion. The former is connected with Hiftory and Poetry; the latter, with nothing, that I know of, but bad company.

LETTER LXXIV.

Knowledge of the World..Dignity of Manners... Flattery„.„ Vulgar Language... Frivolous Curiofity...Decorum...Courts.

DEAR BOY,

LET

London, Auguft the oth..

ET us refume our reflections upon men, their characters, their manners; in a word, our reflections upon the world. They may help you to form yourfelf, and to know others. A knowledge very useful at all ages, very rare at yours: it seems as if it was nobody's bufinefs to communicate it to young men. Their mafters teach them, fingly, the languages, or the fciences of their feveral departments; and are indeed generally incapable of teaching them the world: their parents are often fo too, or at leaft neglect doing it; either from avocations, indifference, or from an opinion, that. throwing them into the world (as they call it) is the

beft

way of teaching it them. This laft notion is in a great degree true; that is, the world can doubtless never be well known by theory; practice is abfolutely neceflary: but furely it is of great ufe to a young man, before he fets out for that country, full of mazes, windings, and turnings, to have at least a general map of it, made by fome experienced traveller.

There is a certain dignity of manners abfolutely neceffary, to make even the most valuable character eithe refpected or refpectable.

Horfe-play, romping, frequent and loud fits of laughter, jokes, waggery, and indifcriminate familiarity, will fink both merit and knowledge into a degree of contempt. They compofe at most a merry fellow; and a merry fellow was never yet a refpectable man. Indifcriminate familiarity either offends your fuperiors, or else dubbs you their dependent, and led captain. It gives your inferiors, juft, but troublefome and improper claims of equality. A joker is near akin to a buffoon; and neither of them is the least related to wit. Whoever is admitted or fought for, in company, upon any other account than that of his merit and manners, is never refpected there, but only made ufe of. We will have fuch-a-one, for he fings prettily; we will invite fuch-a-one to a ball, for he dances well; we will have fuch-a-one at fupper, for he is always joking and laughing; we will afk another, becaufe he plays deep at all games, or because he can drink a great deal. Thefe are all vilifying diftinctions, mortifying preferences, and exclude all ideas of esteem and regard. Whoever is had (as it is called) in company, for the fake of any one thing fingly, is fingly that thing, and will never be confidered in any other light; confequently never refpected, let his merits be what they will.

This dignity of manners, which I recommend fo much to you, is not only as different from pride, as true courage is from bluftering, or true wit from joking; but is abfolutely inconfiftent with it; for nothing vilifies and degrades more than pride. The pretenfions of the proud man are oftener treated with fneer and contempt, than with indignation as we offer ridiculously too little to a tradefman, who afks ridicu loufly too much for his goods; but we do not haggle with one who only afks a juft and reasonable price.

Abject flattery & indifcriminate attention degrade, as much as indifcriminate contradiction and noisy debate, difguft. But a modeft affertion of one's own opinion, and a complaifant acquiefcence in other people's, preferve dignity.