158 en the influence of taste; &ct.^* 



I had received, like you, what is commonly called' 

 a capital education, that is, being made a very per- 

 fect automaton, to read, write, calculate, ride, dance, 

 fence with the small sword, because pistols you know 

 are now only used, perform the minuet de la cour^ 

 because you know country dances, a la mode cham- 

 petre, are Only to be practised in real Jife, — to play 

 «I1 kinds of music by the book and not by the heart, 

 which lyou know destroys a performer totally ; 

 to admire Handell's church anthems and prayers, — 

 and to laugh at the church and, churchmen ! To 

 know the title pages of an amazing number of 

 fjfhionable books, — to drefs negligently among my 

 inferiors, — to be dry, or non chalant, in company, — to 

 avoid all brutal exprefsions of kindnefs to my relati- 

 ons, and all odious connections with provincials, , 

 pedants, ftiopkeepers, mechanics, and unfafhionable 

 old people. To make a genteel little speech at a 

 counry meeting, or move an addrefs in either house 

 of parliament, — to repeat a few agreeable pafsages 

 from the Latin and Englifh claf^ics, and a few more 

 from Rochefoucault, Mandeville's fable of the bees, 

 Voltaire's philosophical dictionary, the PuCelle d?Or- 

 leans, and a few other books of wit and humour, — to 

 use the slang language of statuaries, painters, archi- 

 tects, musicians, and pugilists, with precision and pro- 

 per effect, — and to play all kinds of fafliionable games 

 at cards or dice, without making wry mouths, losing 

 my temper, or rising up from a table where I was 0- 

 vermatched by playing with gentlemen, who were As 

 good as myself, though they might not perhaps sport 



