Your ‘abord’, I must tell you, was too cold and uniform; I hope it is now mended.  It should be respectfully open and cheerful with your superiors, warm and animated with your equals, hearty and free with your inferiors.  There is a fashionable kind of small talk which you should get; which, trifling as it is, is of use in mixed companies, and at table, especially in your foreign department; where it keeps off certain serious subjects, that might create disputes, or at least coldness for a time.  Upon such occasions it is not amiss to know how to parley cuisine, and to be able to dissert upon the growth and flavor of wines.  These, it is true, are very little things; but they are little things that occur very often, and therefore should be said ‘avec gentillesse et grace’.  I am sure they must fall often in your way; pray take care to catch them.  There is a certain language of conversation, a fashionable diction, of which every gentleman ought to be perfectly master, in whatever language he speaks.  The French attend to it carefully, and with great reason; and their language, which is a language of phrases, helps them out exceedingly.  That delicacy of diction is characteristical of a man of fashion and good company.

I could write folios upon this subject, and not exhaust it; but I think, and hope, that to you I need not.  You have heard and seen enough to be convinced of the truth and importance of what I have been so long inculcating into you upon these points.  How happy am I, and how happy are you, my dear child, that these Titian tints, and Guido graces, are all that you want to complete my hopes and your own character!  But then, on the other hand, what a drawback would it be to that happiness, if you should never acquire them?  I remember, when I was of age, though I had not near so good an education as you have, or seen a quarter so much of the world, I observed those masterly touches and irresistible graces in others, and saw the necessity of acquiring them myself; but then an awkward ‘mauvaise honte’, of which I had brought a great deal with me from Cambridge, made me ashamed to attempt it, especially if any of my countrymen and particular acquaintances were by.  This was extremely absurd in me:  for, without attempting, I could never succeed.  But at last, insensibly, by frequenting a great deal of good company, and imitating those whom I saw that everybody liked, I formed myself, ’tant bien que mal’.  For God’s sake, let this last fine varnish, so necessary to give lustre to the whole piece, be the sole and single object now of your utmost attention.  Berlin may contribute a great deal to it if you please; there are all the ingredients that compose it.