The other person whom I recommended to you is a woman;not as a woman,for that is not immediately my business;besides,I fear that she is turned of fifty.It is Lady Hervey,whom I directed you to call upon at Dijon,but who,to my great joy,because to your great advantage,passes all this winter at Paris.She has been bred all her life at courts;of which she has acquired all the easy good-breeding and politeness,without the frivolousness.She has all the reading that a woman should have;and more than any woman need have;for she understands Latin perfectly well,though she wisely conceals it.As she will look upon you as her son,I desire that you will look upon her as my delegate:trust,consult,and apply to her without reserve.No woman ever had more than she has,'le ton de la parfaitement bonne compagnie,les manieres engageantes,et le je ne sais quoi qui plait'.Desire her to reprove and correct any,and every,the least error and in-,accuracy in your manners,air,address,etc.No woman in Europe can do it so well;none will do it more willingly,or in a more proper and obliging manner.In such a case she will not put you out of countenance,by telling you of it in company;but either intimate it by some sign,or wait for an opportunity when you are alone together.She is also in the best French company,where she will not only introduce but PUFF you,if I may use so low a word.And Ican assure you that it is no little help,in the 'beau monde',to be puffed there by a fashionable woman.I send you the inclosed billet to carry her,only as a certificate of the identity of your person,which Itake it for granted she could not know again.
You would be so much surprised to receive a whole letter from me without any mention of the exterior ornaments necessary for a gentleman,as manners,elocution,air,address,graces,etc.,that,to comply with your expectations,I will touch upon them;and tell you,that when you come to England,I will show you some people,whom I do not now care to name,raised to the highest stations singly by those exterior and adventitious ornaments,whose parts would never have entitled them to the smallest office in the excise.Are they then necessary,and worth acquiring,or not?You will see many instances of this kind at Paris,particularly a glaring one,of a person --[M.le Marechal de Richelieu]--raised to the highest posts and dignities in France,as well as to be absolute sovereign of the 'beau monde',simply by the graces of his person and address;by woman's chit-chat,accompanied with important gestures;by an imposing air and pleasing abord.Nay,by these helps,he even passes for a wit,though he hath certainly no uncommon share of it.I will not name him,because it would be very imprudent in you to do it.A young fellow,at his first entrance into the 'beau monde',must not offend the king 'de facto'there.It is very often more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment,the former forgiven,but the latter sometimes forgot.
There is a small quarto book entitled,'Histoire Chronologique de la France',lately published by Le President Henault,a man of parts and learning,with whom you will probably get acquainted at Paris.I desire that it may always lie upon your table,for your recourse as often as you read history.The chronology,though chiefly relative to the history of France,is not singly confined to it;but the most interesting events of all the rest of Europe are also inserted,and many of them adorned by short,pretty,and just reflections.The new edition of 'Les Memoires de Sully',in three quarto volumes,is also extremely well worth your reading,as it will give you a clearer,and truer notion of one of the most interesting periods of the French history,than you can yet have formed from all the other books you may have read upon the subject.That prince,I mean Henry the Fourth,had all the accomplishments and virtues of a hero,and of a king,and almost of a man.The last are the most rarely seen.May you possess them all!Adieu.
Pray make my compliments to Mr.Harte,and let him know that I have this moment received his letter of the 12th,N.S.,from Antibes.It requires no immediate answer;I shall therefore delay mine till I have another from him.Give him the inclosed,which I have received from Mr.Eliot.
