have, I dare say, misled many young men to their
ruin. Une honnête débauche, une jolie débauche: an agreeable rake, a man of pleasure. Do not think that this means debauchery and profligacy; nothing like it. It means, at most, the accidental and unfrequent irregularities of youth and vivacity, in opposition to dulness, formality, and want of spirit. [Same date.]
How to Please.—You must not neglect your
dress neither, but take care to be bien mis. Pray
send for the best operator for the teeth at Turin,
where I suppose there is some famous one, and let
him put yours in perfect order; and then take care
to keep them so afterwards yourself. You had very
good teeth, and I hope they are so still; but even
those who have bad ones should keep them clean;
for a dirty mouth is, to my mind, ill manners. In
short, neglect nothing that can possibly please. A
thousand nameless little things, which nobody can
describe but which everybody feels, conspire to form
that whole of pleasing; as the several pieces of a
mosaic work, though separately of little beauty or
value, when properly joined form those beautiful
figures which please everybody. A look, a gesture,
an attitude, a tone of voice, all bear their parts in
the great work of pleasing. The art of pleasing is