s they have neither the desire nor the means of
getting into good company abroad; for, in the first place, they are
confoundedly bashful; and, in the next place, they either speak no
foreign language at all, or, if they do, it is barbarously. You possess
all the advantages that they want; you know the languages in perfection,
and have constantly kept the best company in the places where you have
been, so that you ought to be a European.

There is, in all good company, a fashionable air, countenance, manner,
and phraseology, which can only be acquired by being in good company,
and very attentive to all that passes there. There is a certain
distinguishing diction of a man of fashion; he will not content himself
with saying, like John Trott, to a new-married man, "Sir, I wish you
joy"--or to a man who 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." 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."

_V.--On the Arts_

Mr. Harte tells me that he intends to give you, by means of Signor
Vincentini, a general notion of civil and military architecture; with
which I am very well pleased. They are frequent subjects of
conversation. I would also have you acquire a liberal taste of the two
liberal arts of painting and sculpture. All these sorts of things I
would have you know, to a certain degree; but remember that they must
only be the amusements, and not the business, of a man of parts.

As you are now in a musical country [Italy], where singing, fiddling,
and piping are not only the common topics of conversation but almost the
principal objects of attention, I cannot help cautioning you against
giving in to those--I will call them illiberal--pleasures, though music
is commonly reckoned one of the liberal arts, to the degree that most of
your countrymen do when