第169章 LETTER CXV(1)

LONDON,June 5,O.S.1750

MY DEAR FRIEND:I have received your picture,which I have long waited for with impatience:I wanted to see your countenance from whence I am very apt,as I believe most people are,to form some general opinion of the mind.If the painter has taken you as well as he has done Mr.Harte (for his picture is by far the most like I ever saw in my life),I draw good conclusions from your countenance,which has both spirit and finesse in it.In bulk you are pretty well increased since I saw you;if your height has not increased in proportion,I desire that you will make haste to,complete it.Seriously,I believe that your exercises at Paris will make you shoot up to a good size;your legs,by all accounts,seem to promise it.Dancing excepted,the wholesome part is the best part of those academical exercises.'Ils degraissent leur homme'.

'A propos'of exercises,I have prepared everything for your reception at Monsieur de la Gueriniere's,and your room,etc.,will be ready at your arrival.I am sure you must be sensible how much better it will be for you to be interne in the Academy for the first six or seven months at least,than to be 'en hotel garni',at some distance from it,and obliged to go to it every morning,let the weather be what it will,not to mention the loss of time too;besides,by living and boarding in the Academy,you will make an acquaintance with half the young fellows of fashion at Paris;and in a very little while be looked upon as one of them in all French companies:an advantage that has never yet happened to any one Englishman that I have known.I am sure you do not suppose that the difference of the expense,which is but a trifle,has any weight with me in this resolution.You have the French language so perfectly,and you will acquire the French 'tournure'so soon,that I do not know anybody likely to pass their time so well at Paris as yourself.Our young countrymen have generally too little French,and too bad address,either to present themselves,or be well received in the best French companies;and,as a proof of it,there is no one instance of an Englishman's having ever been suspected of a gallantry with a French woman of condition,though every French woman of condition is more than suspected of having a gallantry.But they take up with the disgraceful and dangerous commerce of prostitutes,actresses,dancing-women,and that sort of trash;though,if they had common address,better achievements would be extremely easy.'Un arrangement',which is in plain English a gallantry,is,at Paris,as necessary a part of a woman of fashion's establishment,as her house,stable,coach,etc.A young fellow must therefore be a very awkward one,to be reduced to,or of a very singular taste,to prefer drabs and danger to a commerce (in the course of the world not disgraceful)with a woman of health,education,and rank.