let fall her fan, would certainly take it up and give it her; the best-bred man in Europe could do no more.  The difference, however, would be considerable; the latter would please by doing it gracefully; the former would be laughed at for doing it awkwardly.  I repeat it, and repeat it again, and shall never cease repeating it to you:  air, manners, graces, style, elegance, and all those ornaments, must now be the only objects of your attention; it is now, or never, that you must acquire them.  Postpone, therefore, all other considerations; make them now your serious study; you have not one moment to lose.  The solid and the ornamental united, are undoubtedly best; but were I reduced to make an option, I should without hesitation choose the latter.

I hope you assiduously frequent Marcell—­[At that time the most celebrated dancing-master at Paris.]—­and carry graces from him; nobody had more to spare than he had formerly.  Have you learned to carve? for it is ridiculous not to carve well.  A man who tells you gravely that he cannot carve, may as well tell you that he cannot blow his nose:  it is both as necessary, and as easy.

Make my compliments to Lord Huntingdon, whom I love and honor extremely, as I dare say you do; I will write to him soon, though I believe he has hardly time to read a letter; and my letters to those I love are, as you know by experience, not very short ones:  this is one proof of it, and this would have been longer, if the paper had been so.  Good night then, my dear child.

LETTER CXXXII

London, February 28, O. S. 1751.

My dear friend:  This epigram in Martial—­

       “Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;
        Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te”—­

[Or:  “I do not love thee Dr. Fell The reason why I cannot tell.  But this I know and know full well:  I do not love thee Dr. Fell.”  D.W.]

has puzzled a great many people, who cannot conceive how it is possible not to love anybody, and yet not to know the reason why.  I think I conceive Martial’s meaning very clearly, though the nature of epigram, which is to be short, would not allow him to explain it more fully; and I take it to be this:  O Sabidis, you are a very worthy deserving man; you have a thousand good qualities, you have a great deal of learning; I esteem, I respect, but for the soul of me I cannot love you, though I cannot particularly say why.  You are not aimable:  you have not those engaging manners, those pleasing attentions, those graces, and that address, which are absolutely necessary to please, though impossible to define.  I cannot say it is this or that particular thing that hinders me from loving you; it is the whole together; and upon the whole you are not agreeable.