b express their silly joy at silly things; and they call it being
merry. In my mind there is nothing so illiberal, and so ill-bred, as
audible laughter. I am neither of a melancholy nor a cynical
disposition, and am as willing and as apt to be pleased as anybody; but
I am sure that since I have had the full use of my reason nobody has
ever heard me laugh. Many people, at first, from awkwardness and
_mauvaise honte_, have got a very disagreeable and silly trick of
laughing whenever they speak.

This, and many other very disagreeable habits, are owing to _mauvaise
honte_ at their first setting out in the world. They are ashamed in
company, and so disconcerted that they do not know what they do, and try
a thousand tricks to keep themselves in countenance; which tricks
afterwards grow habitual to them. Some put their fingers in their nose,
others scratch their heads, others twirl their hats; in short, every
awkward, ill-bred body has its tricks. But the frequency does not
justify the thing, and all these vulgar habits and awkwardness are most
carefully to be guarded against, as they are great bars in the way of
the art of pleasing.

_London, September_ 5, 1748. I have received yours, with the enclosed
German letter to Mr. Grevenkop, which he assures me is extremely well
written, considering the little time that you have applied yourself to
that language.

St. Thomas's Day now draws near, when you are to leave Saxony and go to
Berlin. Berlin will be entirely a new scene to you, and I look upon it,
in a manner, as your first step into the great world; take care that
step be not a false one, and that you do not stumble at the threshold.
You will there be in more company than you have yet been; manners and
attentions will, therefore, be more necessary.

You will best acquire these by frequenting the companies of people of
fashion; but then you must resolve to acquire them, in those companies,
by proper care and observation. When you go into good company--by good
company is meant the people of the first fashion of the place--observe
carefully their turn, their manners, their address; and conform your own
to them. But this is not all either; go deeper still; observe their
characters, and pry into both their hearts and their heads. Seek for
their particular merit, their predominant passion, or their prevailing
weakness; and you will then know what to bait your hook with to catch
them.

As women are a considerable, or, at lea