wants to cease to be so.  Thus having taken these two out of the way, I have leisure to look at my third lad.  I observe in the young rogue a natural subtilty of mind, which discovers itself rather in forbearing to declare his thoughts on any occasion, than in any visible way of exerting himself in discourse.  For which reason I will place him where, if he commits no faults, he may go farther than those in other stations, though they excel in virtues.  The boy is well fashioned, and will easily fall into a graceful manner; wherefore, I have a design to make him a page to a great lady of my acquaintance; by which means he will be well skilled in the common modes of life, and make a greater progress in the world by that knowledge, than with the greatest qualities without it.  A good mien in a Court will carry a man greater lengths than a good understanding in any other place.  We see a world of pains taken, and the best years of life spent, in collecting a set of thoughts in a college for the conduct of life; and after all, the man so qualified shall hesitate in his speech to a good suit of clothes, and want common sense before an agreeable woman.  Hence it is, that wisdom, valour, justice, and learning, can’t keep a man in countenance that is possessed with these excellences, if he wants that less art of life and behaviour, called “good breeding.”  A man endowed with great perfections without this, is like one who has his pockets full of gold, but always wants change for his ordinary occasions.  Will.  Courtly is a living instance of this truth, and has had the same education which I am giving my nephew.  He never spoke a thing but what was said before; and yet can converse with the wittiest men without being ridiculous.  Among the learned, he does not appear ignorant; nor with the wise, indiscreet.  Living in conversation from his infancy, makes him nowhere at a loss; and a long familiarity with the persons of men, is in a manner of the same service to him, as if he knew their arts.  As ceremony is the invention of wise men to keep fools at a distance, so good breeding is an expedient to make fools and wise men equals.

Will’s Coffee-house, June 17.

The suspension of the playhouse[310] has made me have nothing to send you from hence; but calling here this evening, I found the party I usually sit with, upon the business of writing, and examining what was the handsomest style in which to address women, and write letters of gallantry.  Many were the opinions which were immediately declared on this subject:  some were for a certain softness; some for I know not what delicacy; others for something inexpressibly tender:  when it came to me, I said there was no rule in the world to be made for writing letters, but that of being as near what you speak face to face as you can; which is so great a truth, that I am of opinion, writing has lost more mistresses than any one mistake in the whole legend of love.  For when you write to a lady for whom you have a solid and honourable