298 ADVANCEMENT OP LEAHNINO. [bOOK VIIT. 



vour to supply it by good breeding. And furtlier, there is 

 scarce any greater or more Irequent obstruction to business, 

 than an over-curious observance of external deccrum, with 

 its attendant too solicitous and scrupulous a choice of times 

 and opportunities. Solomon admirably says, " He that re- 

 gards the winds shall not sow, and he that regards the clouds 

 shall not reap."^ For we must make opportunities oftener 

 than we find them. In a v/ord, urbanity is like a garment 

 to the mind, and therefore ought to have the conditions of a 

 garment ; that is, 1. it should be fashionable ; 2. not too 

 delicatp or costly ; 3. it should be so made, as principally to 

 show the reigning virtue ot the mind, and to supply or con- 

 coal deformity ; 4. and lastly, above all things, it must not 

 be too strait, so as to cramp the mind and confine its 

 motions in business. But this part of civil doctrine relating 

 to conversation is elegantly treated by some writers, and can 

 by no means be reported as deficient.^ 



CHAPTER II. 



The Art of Negotiation divided into the Knowledge of Dispersed Occa- 

 sions (Conduct in Particular Emergencies), and into the Science ot 

 Rising in Life. Examples of the former drawn from Solomon. Pre- 

 cepts relating to Self-advancement. 



"We divide the doctrine of business into the doctrine of 

 various occasions, and the doctrine of rising in life. The 

 first includes all the possible variety of affairs, and is as the 

 amanuensis to common life ; but the other collects and 

 suggests such things only as regard the improvement of a 



* Eccles. xi. 4. 



* It seems of late more cultivated among the French and Germans, 

 than among the English. The " Morale du Monde ;" the *' Modeles de 

 Conversation ;" the " Reflexions sur la Ridicule, and sur les moyens 

 Uel'^viter;" "La Politesse des Moeurs;" ** L'Art de Plaire dans la 

 Conversation ;" and Frid. Geutzkenius'a ** Doctrina de Decoro," in his 

 Systema Philosophise, deserve perusal. This last work, published 

 in Germany, treats 1. of the nature of decorum, and its foundation ; 

 2. of national decorum ; 3. of human decorum ; 4. the decorum ot 

 youth and age ; 5. the decorum of men and women ; 6. the decorum 

 of husband and wife ; 7. the decorum of the clergy ; 8. the decorum 

 of princes ; and 9, the decorum of the nobility, and men of letters. See 

 " Stollii Introductio in Historiain I^iteranam, de Poctrina ejus auod 66* 

 Pecprum," p. 79ii-6, Sh<iW. 



