never cease repeating to you, the Graces, the Graces. [April 12, 1749.]
A Gentleman's Pleasures.—Dear Boy: This
letter will, I believe, still find you at Venice, in all
the dissipation of masquerades, ridottos, operas,
etc.: with all my heart; they are decent evening
amusements, and very properly succeed that serious
application to which I am sure you devote your
mornings. There are liberal and illiberal pleasures,
as well as liberal and illiberal arts. There are some
pleasures, that degrade a gentleman, as much as
some trades could do. Sottish drinking, indiscriminate
gluttony, driving coaches, rustic sports, such
as fox-chases, horse-races, etc., are, in my opinion,
infinitely below the honest and industrious professions
of a tailor, and a shoemaker, which are said
to déroger. [April 19, 1749.]
Music—Fiddling.—I cannot help cautioning
you against giving into those (I will call them illiberal)
pleasures (though music is commonly reckoned
one of the liberal arts) to the degree that most
of your countrymen do when they travel in Italy.
If you love music, hear it; go to operas, concerts,
and pay fiddlers to play to you; but I insist upon
your neither piping nor fiddling yourself. It puts
a gentleman in a very frivolous, contemptible light;
