frequently cover? Many of them want common sense, many more common learning; but, in general, they make up so much by their manner for those defects, that frequently they pass undiscovered. I have often said, and do think, that a Frenchman, who, with a fund of virtue, learning, and good sense, has the manners and good breeding of his country, is the perfection of human nature. [Same date.]
Pleasure.—Do not think that I mean to snarl
at pleasure like a stoic, or to preach against it like
a parson; no, I mean to point it out, and recommend
it like an epicurean; I wish you a great deal, and my
only view is to hinder you from mistaking it.
[March 6, 1747.]
Goodness.—You know what virtue is; you may
have it if you will; it is in every man's power, and
miserable is the man who has it not. [Same date.]
The Man of Pleasure.—The character which
most young men first aim at is that of a man of
pleasure; but they generally take it upon trust; and,
instead of consulting their own taste and inclinations,
they blindly adopt whatever those with whom
they chiefly converse are pleased to call by the name
of pleasure; and a man of pleasure, in the vulgar
acceptation of that phrase, means only a beastly
