to leave them the power of flexure. In a word, in infancy he was shapeless, and in youth a looby. Never did a she-bear with more anxious affiduity labour to lick her cub into shape than this fond parent did to correct the errors of nature in the formation of this his darling: the head, the shoulders and the hands, were, by turns, the objects of his care; but the legs and feet seem to have engaged most of his attention: these upon his being fent abroad, were committed to the care' of a dancing-master at Paris, whose instructions he estimates at a higher rate than the precepts of Aristotle*. He recommends to form his manners les agrémens et les graces,† les manieres, la tournure, et les usages du beau monde ; and is perpetually reminding him of that trite maxim Suaviter in modo, fortiter in < re.' || ، The best furniture of a young man's mind are the precepts of religion and found morality. Not a word of either of these do we meet with in two quarto volumes of those letters which I am now citing, but in them precepts of a different kind, such as respect his pleasures, abound. Assuming an air of sapience, which was not very natural to his lordship, he remarks, that in the course of the world the qualifications of the cameleon are often necessary, nay, they must be carried a little farther, and exerted a little fooner; 'for you should,' adds he, 'to a certain degree take the hue of either the man or woman that you want and ' wish to be upon terms with.' Fatherly curiosity then prompts him to an enquiry into certain particulars, which these his own words will go near to explain : *Lecter 215. ↑ Letter 214. I Letter 217. || Letter 213. 'Apropos: Apropos : have you yet found out at Paris any < friendly and hofpitable Madame de Lursay, qui veut < bien se charger du foin de vous éduquer? And have you had any occasion of representing to her, qu' elle • faifoit donc des nœuds? But I ask your pardon, • Sir, for the abruptness of the question, and acknow-' ८ ledge that I am meddling with matters that are out ' of my department. However, in matters of less importance I defire to be de vos secrets le fidele dépositaire. Trust me with the general turn and ' colour of your amusements at Paris. Is it le fracas ' du grand monde, comédies, bals, opéras, cour, • &c.? Or is it des petites societés moins bruiantes mais pas pour cela moins agréables? Where are you ' the most établi? Where are you le petit Stanhope ? Voyez vous encore jour, à quelque arrangement 'honnête?' Letter 212. Farther to initiate him into vice, he recommends to him the turning over men by day and women 'by night,' for thus it pleases him to render the precept Nocturna versate manu versate diurna *; and with matchless effrontery and total disregard for the personal fafety of him whom he is instructing, advises him, in effect, to risque being run through the body, or the breaking his neck out of a bed-chamber window, by commencing an intrigue with a new-married and virtuous young lady. Hear the documents of our Metnor to this purpose: 'Go,' says he, 'among < women, with the good qualities of your sex, and you • will acquire from them the foftness and the graces of theirs. Men will then add affection to the esteem * Letter 217. N4 which which they before had for you. -Women are the only refiners of the merit of men: it is true they cannot add weight; but they polish and give lustre to it. Apropos : I am afssured that Madar e 'de Blot, although she has no great regularity of < features, is notwithstanding, excessively pretty, and ' that for all that, she has as yet been fcrupulously conftant to her husband, though she has now been < married above a year. Surely she does not reflect ' that woman wants polishing. I would have you polish one another reciprocally. Affiduities, attentions, tender looks, and paffionate declarations on your fide, will produce fome irresolute wishes at leaft on hers, and when even the flightest wishes arife, the rest will foon follow *.* Finally, to attain these and the other ends which his lordship points out as the objects of his fon's pursuit, he inculcates in the strongest terms the practice of those arts of crooked cunning, which, as lord Bacon has remarked, oftner defeat than effect their purpose, and together with these, the general exercise of that diffimulation which was one of the most prominent features in his own character, The letters from lord Chesterfield to his fon are two hundred and eighty-five in number. The precepts contained in them are multifarious, and it is to be feared that they have not only been adopted by many ignorant parents and indifcreet tutors, but that they have greatly tended to corrupt the morals of the rifing generation. As an antidote to the poison which they must be fuppofed to have diffused, I shall * Letter 218. here 1 here infert a letter of moral instruction from one of the wisest and greatest men that this nation ever had to boast of, to his fon, and leave the reader to make the comparifon between it and those of the nobleman of whom I am now speaking. It is from Sir Henry Sydney to his fon Philip, afterwards the famous Sir Philip, who, when arrived at the age of manhood, combining the qualities of a foldier, a scholar, a poet, and a courtier, was confefsedly one of the most accomplished gentlemen in Europe. I have received two letters from you, one written ' in Latin, the other in French, which I take in good part, and will you to exercise that practice of learning often, for that will stand you in most stead ' in that profession of life that you are born to live in. And fince this is my first letter that ever I did write ' to you, I will not that it be all empty of some advices, which my natural care of you provoketh me to wish you to follow, as documents to you in this your tender age. Let your first action be the lifting up of your mind to Almighty God by hear 6 ty prayer, and feelingly digeft the words you ' speak in prayer with continual meditation and think ، ing of him to whom you pray, and of the matter ' for which you pray, and use this as an ordinary, at, • and at an ordinary hour, whereby the time itself will put you in remembrance to do that which you are accustomed to do. In that time apply your study to fuch hours as your difcreet master doth affign you, earnestly, and the time I know he will ' so limit as shall be both fufficient for your learning, ، and fafe for your health: and mark the sense and 'the the matter of that you read, as well as the words; • so shall you both enrich your tongue with words, ' and your wit with matter, and judgment will grow as years grow in you. Be humble and obedient to your master; for unless you frame yourself to ' obey others, yea and feel in yourself what obedience is, you shall never be able to teach others how to obey you. Be courteous of gesture, and affable to all men, with diversity of reverence according to ' the dignity of the perfon: there is nothing that • winneth so much with so little cost. Use moderate < diet, so as after your meat you may find your wit • fresher and not duller, and your body more lively and not more heavy. Seldom drink wine, and yet ' sometime do, lest being inforced to drink upon the • fudden you should find yourself inflamed. Use ex'ercife of body, but fuch as is without peril of your joints or bones: it will increase your force and enlarge your breath. Delight to be cleanly as well in all parts of your body as in your garments; it shall ' make you grateful in each company, and otherwife loathsome. Give yourself to be merry; for you degenerate from your father if you find not yourself most able in wit and body to do any thing when you ' be most merry; but let your mirth be ever void of • all scurrility and biting words to any man, for a ' wound given by a word is oftentimes harder to be cured than that which is given with the sword. Be you rather a hearer and bearer away of other mens' • talk than a beginner or procurer of speech, otherwife ، ، you shall be counted to delight to hear yourself < fpeak. If you hear a wise sentence or an apt phrafe, ' commit |