But a man of sense takes the time necessary for doing the thing he is about,well;and his haste to dispatch a business only appears by the continuity of his application to it:he pursues it with a cool steadiness,and finishes it before he begins any other.I own your time is much taken up,and you have a great many different things to do;but remember that you had much better do half of them well and leave the other half undone,than do them all indifferently.Moreover,the few seconds that are saved in the course of the day,by writing ill instead of well,do not amount to an object of time by any means equivalent to the disgrace or ridicule of writing the scrawl of a common whore.
Consider,that if your very bad writing could furnish me with matter of ridicule,what will it not do to others who do not view you in that partial light that I do?There was a pope,I think it was Cardinal Chigi,who was justly ridiculed for his attention to little things,and his inability in great ones:and therefore called maximus in minimis,and minimus in maximis.Why?Because he attended to little things when he had great ones to do.At this particular period of your life,and at the place you are now in,you have only little things to do;and you should make it habitual to you to do them well,that they may require no attention from you when you have,as I hope you will have,greater things to mind.Make a good handwriting familiar to you now,that you may hereafter have nothing but your matter to think of,when you have occasion to write to kings and ministers.Dance,dress,present yourself,habitually well now,that you may have none of those little things to think of hereafter,and which will be all necessary to be done well occasionally,when you will have greater things to do.
As I am eternally thinking of everything that can be relative to you,one thing has occurred to me,which I think necessary to mention to you,in order to prevent the difficulties which it might otherwise lay you under;it is this as you get more acquaintances at Paris,it will be impossible for you to frequent your first acquaintances so much as you did,while you had no others.As,for example,at your first 'debut',I suppose you were chiefly at Madame Monconseil's,Lady Hervey's,and Madame du Boccage's.Now,that you have got so many other houses,you cannot be at theirs so often as you used;but pray take care not to give them the least reason to think that you neglect,or despise them,for the sake of new and more dignified and shining acquaintances;which would be ungrateful and imprudent on your part,and never forgiven on theirs.
Call upon them often,though you do not stay with them so long as formerly;tell them that you are sorry you are obliged to go away,but that you have such and such engagements,with which good-breeding obliges you to comply;and insinuate that you would rather stay with them.In short,take care to make as many personal friends,and as few personal enemies,as possible.I do not mean,by personal friends,intimate and confidential friends,of which no man can hope to have half a dozen in the whole course of his life;but I mean friends,in the common acceptation of the word;that is,people who speak well of you,and who would rather do you good than harm,consistently with their own interest,and no further.Upon the whole,I recommend to you,again and again,'les Graces'.Adorned by them,you may,in a manner,do what you please;it will be approved of;without them,your best qualities will lose half their efficacy.Endeavor to be fashionable among the French,which will soon make you fashionable here.Monsieur de Matignon already calls you 'le petit Francois'.If you can get that name generally at Paris,it will put you 'a la mode'.Adieu,my dear child.
