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pudence. A man is despised who is always commending himself, and who is the hero of his own story.

Not to perform our promise, is a folly, a dishonour, and a crime. It is a folly, because no one will rely on us afterwards; and it is a dishonour and a crime, because truth is the first duty of religion and morality: and whoever is not possessed of truth cannot be supposed to have any one good quality, and must be held in detestation by all good men.

Wit may create many admirers, but makes few friends. It shines and dazzles, like the noon-day sun; but, like that too, is very apt to scorch, and therefore is always feared. The milder morning and evening light and heat of that planet soothe and calm our minds. Never seek for wit: if it presents itself, well and good; but even in that case let your judgment interpose; and take care that it be not at the expense of any body. Pope says very truly,

• There are whom heaven has blest with store of wit, Yet want as much again to govern it.'

And in another place, I doubt with too much truth,

For wit and judgment ever are at strife,

Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife.'

A proper secrecy is the only mystery of able men; mystery is the only secrecy of weak and cunning men.

To tell any friend, wife, or mistress, any secret with which they have nothing to do, is discovering to them,such an unretentive weakness, as must convince them that you will tell it to twenty others, and consequently that they may reveal it without the risk of being discovered. But a secret properly

communicated, only to those who are to be con cerned in the question, will probably be kept by them, though they should be a good many. Little secrets are commonly told again, but great ones generally kept.

A man who tells nothing, or who tells all, will equally have nothing told him.

If a fool knows a secret, he tells it because he is a fool; if a knave knows one, he tells it wherever it is his interest to tell it. But women and young men are very apt to tell what secrets they know, from the vanity of having been trusted. Trust none of these, wherever you can help it.

In your friendships, and in your enmities, let your confidence, and your hostilities have certain bounds; make not the former dangerous, nor the latter irreconcilable. There are strange vicissitudes in business

Smoothe your way to the head through the heart. The way of reason is a good one; but it is commonly something longer, and perhaps not so sure.

Spirit is now a very fashionable word: To act with spirit, to speak with spirit, means only to act rashly, and to talk indiscreetly. An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions; he is neither hot nor timid.

Patience is a most necessary qualification for business; many a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request. One must seem to hear the unreasonable demands of the petulant unmoved, and the tedious details of the dull untired. This is the least price that a man must pay for a high station.

It is always right to detect a fraud, and to perceive a folly; but it is often very wrong to expose

either. A man of business should always have his eyes open, but must often seem to have them shut.

In courts (and every where else) bashfulness and timidity are as prejudicial on one hand, as impudence and rashness are on the other. A steady assurance and a cool intrepidity, with an exterior modesty, are the true and necessary medium.

Never apply for what you see very little probability of obtaining; for you will, by asking improper and unattainable things, accustom the ministers to refuse you so often, that they will find it easy to refuse you the properest and most reasonable ones. It is a common but a most mistaken rule at court, to ask for every thing in order to get something you do get something by it, it is true; but that something is refusals and ridicule. This maxim, like the former, is of general application.

A cheerful, easy countenance and behaviour are very useful: they make fools think you a good-na tured man, and they make designing men think you an undesigning one

There are some occasions in which a man must tell half his secret, in order to conceal the rest; but there is seldom one in which a man should tell it all. Great skill is necessary to know how far to go, and where to stop.

Ceremony is necessary, as the out-work and defence of manners.

A man's own good breeding is his best security against other people's ill manners.

Good breeding carries along with it a dignity that is respected by the most petulant. Ill breeding invites and authorizes the familiarity of the most timid. No man ever said a pert thing to the Duke of Marlborough. No man ever said a civil one

(though many a flattering one) to Sir Robert Walpole.

Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments only give lustre ; and many more people see than weigh.

Most arts require long study and application; but the most useful art of all, that of pleasing, requires only the desire.

It is to be presumed, that a man of common sense who does not desire to please, desires nothing at all; since he must know that he cannot obtain any thing without it.

A skilful negociator will most carefully distinguish between the little and the great objects of his business, and will be as frank and open in the former, as he will be secret and pertinacious in the latter. This maxim holds equally true in common life.

The Duc de Sully observes very justly, in his Memoirs, that nothing contributed more to his rise, than that prudent economy which he had observed from his youth; and by which he had always a sum of money before-hand, in case of emergencies.

It is very difficult to fix the particular point of economy: the best error of the two is on the parsimonious side: that may be corrected, the other

cannot.

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The reputation of generosity is to be purchased pretty cheap; it does not depend so much upon a man's general expense, as it does upon his giving handsomely where it is proper to give at all. man, for instance, who should give a servant four shillings, would pass for covetous, while he who gave him a crown would be reckoned generous; ∞ that the difference of those two opposite characters

turns upon one shilling. A man's character in that particular depends a great deal upon the report of his own servants; a mere trifle above common wages makes their report favourable.

Take care always to form your establishment so much within your income, as to leave a sufficient fund for unexpected contingencies and a prudent liberality. There is hardly a year in any man's life in which a small sum of ready money may not be employed to great advantage.

END OF LORD CHESTERFIELD'S ADVICE TO HIS SON.'

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