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'Les Manieres et les Graces' are no immaterial parts of that work; and I beg that you will give as much of your attention to them as to your books. Everything depends upon them; 'senza di noi ogni fatica e vana'. The various companies you now go into will procure them you, if you will carefully observe, and form yourself upon those who have them. Adieu!

Remember, that to please is almost to prevail, or at least a necessary previous step to it. You, who have your fortune to make, should more particularly study this art. You had not, I must tell you, when you left England, 'les manieres prevenantes'; and I must confess they are not very common in England; but I hope that your good sense will make you acquire them abroad.

Telles sont les manières de combattre que les Turcs ont jusqu'

I allude to it chiefly in order to mention the name of one of its promenades, which is the stateliest, beyond all comparison, in the world; the name, I mean, not the street. The latter is called Les Belles Manières. Could anything be finer than that?

But there is a certain conduct, there are certaines manières, that will, and must, get the better of all difficulties of that kind. It is to acquire them that you still continue abroad, and go from court to court; they are personal, local, and temporal; they are modes which vary, and owe their existence to accidents, whim, and humour.

Elle redevint peu a peu silencieuse, et ses profonds soupirs ne prouverent que trop que l'oubli du triste passe n'etait qu'a la surface; ses manieres taciturnes et les manifestations d'une secrete inquietude commencaient meme a troubler mes parents, et mon pere essaya par beaucoup de bonte a la persuader d'accepter les epreuves de sa vie comme venant de Dieu.

They are likewise jealous of being slighted; and, consequently, suspicious and captious; they are eager and hot about trifles because trifles were, at first, their affairs of consequence. 'Les manieres nobles' imply exactly the reverse of all this. Study them early; you cannot make them too habitual and familiar to you.

By the way, you may take your lodgings for one whole year certain, by which means you may get them much cheaper; for though I intend to see you here in less than a year, it will be but for a little time, and you will return to Paris again, where I intend you shall stay till the end of April twelvemonth, 1752, at which time, provided you have got all 'la politesse, les manieres, les attentions, et les graces du beau monde', I shall place you in some business suitable to your destination.

What the French justly call 'les manieres nobles' are only to be acquired in the very best companies. They are the distinguishing characteristics of men of fashion: people of low education never wear them so close, but that some part or other of the original vulgarism appears. 'Les manieres nobles' equally forbid insolent contempt, or low envy and jealousy.

The following passage is extracted from a letter written a few days after those already given: "J'ai dine chez Woolner hier. Quel brave garcon! Ses manieres avec moi sont tout-a-fait affectueuses, et je me sens avec lui sur le pied de la plus parfaite intimite. Il n'y a pas un homme a Londres qui possede un cercle d'amis comme le sien: tout ce qu'il y a de plus distingue en tout.