at a concert, degrades his own dignity. If you love music, hear it; pay fiddlers to play to you, but never fiddle yourself. It makes a gentleman appear frivolous and contemptible, leads him frequently into bad company, and wastes that time which might otherwise be well employed.

CARVING. However trifling some things may seem, they are no longer so when about half the world thinks them otherwise. Carving, as it occurs at least once in every day, is not below our notice. We should use ourselves to carve adroitly and genteelly, without hacking half an hour across a bone, without bespattering the company with the sauce, and without overturning the glasses into your neighbour's pockets. To be awkward in this particular is extremely disagreeable and ridiculous. It is easily avoided by a little attention and use; and a man who tells you gravely that he cannot carve, may as well tell you that he cannot blow his nose; it is both as easy and as necessary.

CHITCHAT.-Study to acquire that fashionable kind of small-talk or chitchat which prevails in all polite assemblies, and which, trifling as it may appear, is of use in mixed companies and at table. It turns upon the public events of Europe, and then is at its best; very often upon the number, the goodness or badness, the discipline, or the clothing, of the troops of different princes; sometimes upon the families, the marriages, the relations of princes and considerable people; and sometimes the magnificence of public entertainments, balls, masquerades, &c. Upon such occasions, likewise, it is not amiss to know how to parler cuisine, and to be able to dissert upon the growth and flavour of wines. These, it is true, are very little things; but they are little things that occur very often, and therefore should be said avec gentillesse et grace.

CLEANLINESS. The person should be accurately clean; the teeth, hands, and nails should be particularly so a dirty mouth has real ill consequences to the owner; for it infallibly causes the decay, as well

as the intolerable pain, of the teeth; and is very offensive, for it will most inevitably stink. Wash your teeth the first thing you do every morning, with a soft sponge and water, for four or five minutes, and then wash your mouth several times. Nothing looks more ordinary, vulgar, and illiberal than dirty hands, and ugly, uneven, and ragged nails; the ends of which should be kept smooth and clean (not tipped with black), and small segments of circles; and, every time that the hands are wiped, rub the skin round the nails backwards, that it may not grow up and shorten them too much. Upon no account whatever put your fingers in your nose or ears. It is the most shocking, nasty, vulgar rudeness that can be offered to a company. The ears should be washed well every morning; and in blowing your nose never look at it afterward.

These things may, perhaps, appear too insignificant to be mentioned; but, when it is remembered that a thousand little nameless things, which every one feels but no one can describe, conspire to form that whole of pleasing, I think we ought not to call them trifling. Besides, a clean shirt and a clean person are as necessary to health as not to offend other people. I have ever held it as a maxim, and which I have lived to see verified, that a man who is negligent at twenty will be a sloven at forty, and intolerable at fifty years of age.

COMPLIMENTS.-Attend to the compliments of congratulation or condolence that you hear a well-bred man make to his superiors, to his equals, and to his inferiors; watch even his countenance and his tone of voice; for they all conspire in the main point of pleasing. There is a certain distinguishing diction of a man of fashion: he will not content himself with saying, like John Trot, to a new married man, Sir, I wish you much joy;' or, to a man who has lost his son, Sir, I am sorry for your loss;' and both with a countenance equally unmoved: but he will say in effect the same thing, in a more elegant and less

trivial manner, and with a countenance adapted to the occasion. He will advance with warmth, vivacity, and a cheerful countenance to the new married man; and, embracing him, perhaps say to him, If you do justice to my attachment to you, you will judge of the joy that I feel upon this occasion better than I can express it,' &c. To the other, in affliction, he will advance slowly, with a grave composure of countenance, in a more deliberate manner, and, with a lower voice, perhaps, say, I hope you do me the justice to be convinced that I feel whatever you feel, and shall ever be affected where you are concerned.'

DICTION.-There is a certain language of conversation, a fashionable diction, of which every gentleman ought to be perfectly master, in whatever language he speaks. The French attend to it carefully, and with great reason; and their language, which is a language of phrases, helps them out exceedingly. That delicacy of diction is characteristical of a man of fashion and good company.

DRESS.-Dress is one of the various ingredients that contribute to the art of pleasing, and, therefore, an object of some attention; for we cannot help forming some opinion of a man's sense and character from his dress. All affectation in dress implies a flaw in the understanding. Men of sense carefully avoid any particular character in their dress; they are accurately clean for their own sake, but all the rest is for the sake of other people. A man should dress as well and in the same manner as the people of sense and fashion of the place where he is: if he dresses more than they, he is a fop; if he dresses less, he is unpardonably negligent: but, of the two, a young fellow should be rather too much than too little dressed; the excess of that side will wear off with a little age and reflection; but if he is negligent at twenty he will be a sloven at forty. It is of great importance that your clothes are well made and fit you, for otherwise they will give you a very awkward air.

The difference in dress between a man and a fop is, that the fop values himself upon his dress, and the man of sense laughs at it, at the same time that he knows he must not neglect it. There are a thousand foolish customs of this kind, which, as they are not criminal, must be complied with, and even cheerfully, by men of sense. Diogenes, the cynic, was a wise man for despising them, but a fool for shewing it.

One should not attempt to rival or to excel a fop in dress; but it is necessary to dress, to avoid singularity and ridicule. Great care should be taken to be always dressed like the reasonable people of our own age, in the place where we are, whose dress is never spoken of one way or the other, as neither too negligent, nor too much studied.

Awkwardness of carriage is very alienating, and a total negligence of dress and air an impertinent insult upon custom and fashion. Women have great influence as to a man's fashionable character; and an awkward man will never have their votes, which are very numerous, and oftener counted than weighed.

When you are once well dressed for the day, you should think no more of it afterward; and, without any stiffness for fear of discomposing that dress, you should be as easy and natural as if you had no clothes on at all.

DANCING. Dancing, likewise, though a silly trifling thing, is one of those established follies which people of sense are sometimes obliged to conform to; and, if they do, they should be able to perform it well.

In dancing, the motion of the arms should be particularly attended to, as these decide a man's being genteel or otherwise more than any other part of the body. A twist or stiffness in the wrist will make any man look awkward. If a man dances well from the waist upwards, wears his hat well, and moves his head properly, he dances well. Coming into a room and presenting yourself to a company should be also attended to, as this always gives the first impression, which is often indelible. Those who present them

selves well have a certain dignity in their air, which, without the least seeming mixture of pride, at once engages and is respected.

DRINKING OF HEALTHS.-Drinking of healths is now grown out of fashion, and is deemed unpolite in good company. Custom once had rendered it universal, but the improved manners of the age now consider it as absurd and vulgar. What can be more rude or ridiculous than to interrupt persons at their meals with an unnecessary compliment? Abstain, then, from this silly custom, where you find it disused; and use it only at those tables where it continues general.

ASSURANCE.-A steady assurance is too often improperly styled impudence. For my part, I see no impudence, but, on the contrary, infinite utility and advantage, in presenting one's self with the same coolness and unconcern in any and every company; till one can do that, I am very sure that one can never present one's self well. Whatever is done under concern and embarrassment must be ill done; and, till a man is absolutely easy and unconcerned in every company, he will never be thought to have kept good, nor be very welcome in it. Assurance and intrepidity, under the white banner of seeming modesty, clear the way to merit, that would otherwise be discouraged by difficulties in its journey; whereas barefaced impudence is the noisy and blustering harbinger of a worthless and senseless usurper.

HURRY.-A man of sense may be in haste, but can never be in a hurry, because he knows whatever he does in a hurry he must necessarily do very ill. He may be in haste to dispatch an affair, but he will take care not to let that haste hinder his doing it well. Little minds are in a hurry when the object proves (as it commonly does) too big for them; they run, they hare, they puzzle, confound, and perplex themselves; they want to do every thing at once, and never do it at all. But a man of sense takes the time necessary for doing the thing he is about well;