The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-07-12

that the common prejudice against that no
BILE author is derived from Samuel johnson
whose enmity he incurred. Very likely that is
so, and that Ursa Major leads us by his chain
of prejudice. Many people certainly, perhaps
most, believe the Earl of Chesterfield gave
wicked advice to his son, and led him into
bad ways. Others have the idea that he
strove to make him only courtier, shallow,
selfish, insincere. The truth is, Chesterfeld's s
Letters are not merely book of etiquette
or courtier's manual. The accomplished
nobleman sought to improve the mind and
sought to make an English gentleman of
him and fit him for the life of man of af-
fairs. There are, it is true, Objectionable
passages in the letters, teaching a morality
that is now happily out of fashion. But
that was the fault of Chesterfield's time,
and not peculiar to himself. No one at this
day would think of being guided by it..
Yorick remembers reading the Letters years
ago-they were contained in volume bound
in faded blue and accompanied by hideous
wood-cut Of Philip Dormer Stanhope. What
ever there was. that was bad in them he has
forgotten. 1t could not have been put in a
tempting way, or even in memorable Ian
guage. OF his own knowledge he cannot
testify to its existence. Perhaps had the
book been read later in life the objectiona-
BILE passages would not have been so heed
lessly passed over. But Yo-ick found the
Letters rather ''preachy'' as whole, little
prosy in fact, though there was much in
them to interest.
Just what morals Chesterfield did teach
when he taught them at all are illustrated
by these passages Mr.. Grant Duff has taken
from the Letters:
"While you were a child, endeavored to
form your heart habitually to virtue and
honor, before your heart was capable of
showing you their beauty and utility. Those
principles, which you then got, like your
grammar rules, only by rote, are now, am
persuaded, fixed and confirmed by reason.
| have therefore, since
you have had the use of reason, never writ
ten to you upon those subjects; they speak
best for themselves; and l should now, lust
as soon think of warning you gravely not to
fall into the dirt or the fire, as into dishonor
or vice. Letter CLxyuI.
81 hope in God, and verify believe that
you want no moral virtue. But the posses
sion OF all the moral virtues IN actu prina o
as the logicians call it, is not sufficient; you
must have them in dctu secundO too; nay,
that is not sufficient neither; you must have
the reputation of them also. Your charac-
ter in the world must be built upon that
solid foundation II will fol
upon your own head. You cannot therefore
be too careful, too nice, too scrupu-
lous, in establishing this character at
first, upon which your whole depends. Let
no conversation, no example, no fashion, no
bon mot no silly desire of seeming to be
above what most knaves and many fools call
prejudices, ever tempt you to avow, excuse,
eXtenuate, or laugh at the least breach of
morality; but show upon all occasions, and
take all occasions to show, detestation and
adherence OF it. Letter CXCIII.
Here too are few of the maxims he
wrote for his son:
SIN the case of scandal, as in that of rob
berry, the receiver is always thought as bad
as the thief
"a man of the world must, like the cham
eleon, be able to take every different hue !;
which is by no means criminal or abject, but
a necessary complaisance, for it only relates
to manners, and not to morals"
Cautiously avoid talking either of your
ownor other peoples domestic affairs. Yours
are nothing to them, but tedious; theirs are
nothing to you. The subject is trnder one
and it is odds but you touch somebody or
others sore place: for in this case there is no
trusting to specious appearances; which may
be, and often are, so contrary to the real sit
uatiohs OF things that, with the best inten-
tions in the world, one often blunders disa-
greeably."
''The scholar without good breeding is a
pedant; the philosopher, cynic; the soldier,
brute; and every man disagreeable."
There are two sorts of good company
one which is called the beau monde. and con-
sists of those people who have the lead in
courts, and in the gay part of life; the other
consists of those who are distinguished by
some peculiar merit, or who excel in some
particular and valuable art or science. For
my OWL part, / used to think myself in COM
pany as much above me, when l was with
Mr.. Addison and Mr.. Pope, as if / had been
with all the princes in Europe"
''All general reflections, upon nations and
societies, are the trite, threadbare jokes of
those who set up for wit without having any
and so have recourse to commonplace"
Company is a republic too jealous of its
liberties to suffer dictator even for quar-
ter of an hour
''Good breeding carries along with it a
dignity that is respected by the most petu-
liant. Ill breeding invites and authorizes the
familiarity of the most timid. No man ever
said pert thing to the Duke of Marlborough.
No man ever said civil one Though many
a fiattering one) to Sir Robert Walpole.'
''When the old clipped money was called
in for new coinage in King Williams time,
to prevent the like for the future, they
stamped on the edges of the crown pieces
these words, ct Decus ct Tutdmen. That is
exactly the case of good breeding.
"Whoever is in hurry, shows that the
thing he is about is too big for him. Haste
and hurry are very different things"
"A proper secrecy is the only mystery of
able men; mystery is the only secrecy of
weak and cunning ones"
"a man who tells nothing, or who tells
all, will equally have nothing told to him.
when a man of sense happens to be in
that disagreeable situation, in which he is
obliged to ask himself more than once,
What shall do? he will answer himself,
Nothing. When his reason points out to
him no good way, or at least no way less bad
than another, he will stop short and wait
for light. A little busy mind runs on at all
events, must be doing; and, like blind
lOloC, lSdlS llo udllScIs, bcCttuot He Scts
none."
Patience is q most necessary qualifica-
ton for business; many 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. That is
the least price that man must pay for a
high station"
''In business, an elegant simplicity, the
result of care, not If labor, is required
Business must be WELL not affectedly
dressed; but by no means negligently. Lei
your first attention be to clearness, and read
every paragraph after you have written it.
in the critical view of discovering whether il
be possible that any one man can mistake
the true sense of it, and correct it accord
ingly.
Surely we have here b 9th wit and wis
dom. Young men to-day may find Chester
fields Letters profitable reading, and be not
whit the worse for the time spent in theil
perusal.
News and Other Items.
The Duke of Argyle called on the poet Long
fellow yesterday
John Williams and Winter Payne were
both hung yesterday at Warrentown, Pa.