第57章 LETTER XLIV.(2)

And what French books do you read for your amusement?Pray give me a particular and true account of all this;for I am not indifferent as to any one thing that relates to you.As,for example,I hope you take great care to keep your whole person,particularly your mouth,very clean;common decency requires it,besides that great cleanliness is very conducive to health.But if you do not keep your mouth excessively clean,by washing it carefully every morning,and after every meal,it will not only be apt to smell,which is very disgusting and indecent,but your teeth will decay and ache,which is both a great loss and a great pain.A spruceness of dress is also very proper and becoming at your age;as the negligence of it implies an indifference about pleasing,which does not become a young fellow.To do whatever you do at all to the utmost perfection,ought to be your aim at this time of your life;if you can reach perfection,so much the better;but at least,by attempting it,you will get much nearer than if you never attempted it at all.

Adieu!SPEAK GRACEFULLY AND DISTINCTLY if you intend to converse ever with,Yours.

P.S.As I was making up my letter,I received yours of the 6th,O.S.

I like your dissertation upon Preliminary Articles and Truces.Your definitions of both are true.Those are matters which I would have you be master of;they belong to your future department,But remember too,that they are matters upon which you will much oftener have occasion to speak than to write;and that,consequently,it is full as necessary to speak gracefully and distinctly upon them as to write clearly and elegantly.I find no authority among the ancients,nor indeed among the moderns,for indistinct and unintelligible utterance.The Oracles indeed meant to be obscure;but then it was by the ambiguity of the expression,and not by the inarticulation of the words.For if people had not thought,at least,they understood them,they would neither have frequented nor presented them as they did.There was likewise among the ancients,and is still among the moderns,a sort of people called Ventriloqui,who speak from their bellies,on make the voice seem to come from some other part of the room than that where they are.But these Ventriloqui speak very distinctly and intelligibly.The only thing,then,that I can find like a precedent for your way of speaking (and Iwould willingly help you to one if I could)is the modern art 'de persifler',practiced with great success by the 'Petits maitres'at Paris.This noble art consists in picking out some grave,serious man,who neither understands nor expects,raillery,and talking to him very quick,and inarticulate sounds;while the man,who thinks that he did not hear well;or attend sufficiently,says,'Monsieur?or 'Plait-il'?a hundred times;which affords matter of much mirth to those ingenious gentlemen.Whether you would follow,this precedent,I submit to you.

Have you carried no English or French comedies of tragedies with you to Leipsig?If you have,I insist upon your reciting some passages of them every day to Mr.Harte in the most distinct and graceful manner,as if you were acting them upon a stage.

The first part of my,letter is more than an answer to your questions concerning Lord Pulteney.