| Citation |
RNYG.774.056
28 Jul 1774:11,12 (67)
The Earl of Chesterfield's Letters to his son, Philip
Stannope, Esq., late Envoy Extraordinary of the Court of
Dresden.
Letter IV. London, May the 8th, O.S. 1750.
My Dear Friend,
At your age the love of pleasures is extremely natural,
and the enjoyment of them not unbecoming; but the danger at
your age, is mistaking the object, and setting out wrong in
the pursuit. . . . [44 lines of col. 1, 18 lines of col. 2]
Divide your time between useful occupations, and elegant
pleasures. The morning
seems to belong to study, business, or serious conversations
with men of learning and figure; not that I exclude an
occasional hour at a toilette. From sitting down to dinner,
the proper business of the day is pleasure, unless real
business, which must never be postponed for pleasure,
happens accidentally to interfere. In good company, the
pleasures of the table are always carried to a certain point
of delicacy and gratification, but never to excess and riot.
Plays, operas, balls, suppers, gay conversations in polite
and chearful companies, properly conclude the evenings; not
to mention the tender looks that you may direct, and the
sighs that you may offer upon these several occasions, to
some propitious or unpropitious female deity; whose
character and manners will neither disgrace nor corrupt you.
This is the life of a man of real sense and pleasure; and
by this distribution of your time, and choice of your
pleasures, you will be equally qualified for the busy or the
beau monde. . . [31 lines]
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