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1841

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE very flattering reception which the following work experienced from the Public, through seven successive editions, has encouraged the Editor to enlarge the plan, and thus render the piece of more extensive utility.

The abilities of Lord Chesterfield, to inculcate such precepts as should form the mind and fashion the manners of youth, are too universally admired to need encomium. In the Advice of that noble Earl to his Son, there are to be found such judicious remarks on men, manners, and things, connected with so intimate a knowledge of the world, that the sentiments, considered as maxims, form a very valuable system of education.

But, as the observations of different writers on the same subject are mutually illustrative of each other, to render the following work acceptable, a variety of Notes are subjoined, extracted from a small treatise on Politeness, entitled 'Galateo.'This exquisite piece was written by the Archbishop of Benevento, in the sixteenth century, about the commencement of the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and it shows (as the English Translator observes) 'to what a degree of refinement, both in manners and literature, the Italians were arrived, when we were at a period just emerging from ignorance and barbarity. Of the treatise thus described it is only

necessary farther to add, that it has been translated into Latin, as well as the modern languages, and so celebrated is the fame of the author, that, at this day, it is proverbial in Italy to pronounce of an ill-bred man, That he has not read Galateo.'

Without intending the most distant imputation of plagiarism, it may be presumed that Lord Chesterfield had this very book before him when he wrote his Letters to his Son. The reader who takes the trouble of comparing the extracts from Galateo, now subjoined, with the sentiments of the noble Earl, will most probably be of the same opinion.

That nothing might be wanting to render the following work complete, the Precepts of Lord Burghley to his Son are added, as highly estimable on the subjects of manners and education. The most ordinary sentiments of so dignified a character acquire weight; but when a series of well-digested precepts, the result of great knowledge and extonsive experience, are delivered for the guidance of a son in the momentous concerns of life and happiness, the preceptor claims our catrem, and his opinions our reverence.

To the picceding editions of this work, the Marchioness de Lambert's Advice to her Son, and the Moral Reflections of the Duc de la Rochefoucault, were annexed, although omitted to be noticed in the Preface. Thess pieces are continued in the present edition. But the diffusive, and it is hoped pertinent, exacts from Galateo, together with the Precepts of Lord Burghley to his Son, and the celebrated Dr. Franklin's Way to Wealth, the latter of which is now, for the third time, introduced as part of this work, afford so copious an improvement as to give novelty and additional value to

this edition. Should the Public be of the same opinion, the expectation of the Editor will be amply gratified. So much depends on education, that scarcely too much can be advanced on the subject; and even, if it should fail of success, an effort to benefit the rising generation is highly honourable, and affords that self-approving hour which is the best reward of every well-meant endeavour.

With regard to the Polite Philosopher, it may yet be necessary to add that it was printed criginally at Edinburgh (1794), and a part of the edition sent up to Lordon. The novelty of the title, and, to say truth, of the performance itself, for it is written in a manner never before ma le use of in our language, recommended it to some, and prejudiced it in the opinion of others; but time, which is the touchstone of such productions, did justice to the work, and at last procured it an esteem, not only here, but abroad.

The intent of the author was to make men ashamed of their vices, by showing them how ridiculous they were made by them, and how impossible it was for a bad man to be polite. It may be graver books have been written on this subject, but few more to the point; its author being equally skilled in books and in men, in the dead languages and the living; and his observations will be generally found true, und his maxims just.

LORD CHESTERFIELD'S

ADVICE TO HIS SON.

ABSENCE OF MIND.

An absent man is generally either a very weak or a very affected man; he is, however, a very disagreeable man in company. He is defective in all the common offices of civility; he does not enter into the general conversation, but breaks into it from time to time with some starts of his own, as if he waked from a dream. He seems wrapped up in thought, and possibly does not think at all: he does not know his most intimate acquaintance by sight, or answers them as if he were at cross purposes. He leaves his hat in one room, his cane in another, and would probably leave his shoes in a third, if his buckles, though awry, did not save them. This is a sure indication, either of a mind so weak that it cannot bear above one object at a time, or so affected, that it would be supposed to be wholly engrossed by some very great and important objects. Sir Isaac Newton, Mr. Locke, and, perhaps, five or six more since the creation, may have had a right to absence, from the intense thought their investigations required; but such liberties cannot be claimed by, nor will be tolerated in, any other persons.

No man is in any degree fit for either business or conversation, who does not command his attention to the present object, be it what it will. When I