for the
first time, with two left legs, presenting yourself with all the graces
and dignity of a tailor, and your clothes hanging upon you like those in
Monmouth Street, upon tenter-hooks! Whereas I expect, nay require, to
see you present yourself with the easy and gentle air of a man of
fashion who has kept good company. I expect you not only well dressed,
but very well dressed; I expect a gracefulness in all your motions, and
something particularly engaging in your address. All this I expect, and
all these it is in your power, by care and attention, to make me find;
but, to tell you the plain truth, if I do not find it, we shall not
converse very much together; for I cannot stand inattention and
awkwardness; it would endanger my health.

You have often seen, and I have as often made you observe, L[yttelton]'s
distinguished inattention and awkwardness. Wrapped up like a Laputan in
intense thought, and possibly sometimes in no thought at all--which, I
believe, is very often the case with absent people--he does not know his
most intimate acquaintance at sight, or answers them as if they were at
cross purposes. He leaves his hat in one room, his sword in another, and
would leave his shoes in a third, if his buckles, although awry, did not
save them; his legs and arms, by his awkward management of them, seem to
have undergone the _question extraordinaire_; and his head, always
hanging upon one or other of his shoulders, seems to have received the
first stroke upon a block. I sincerely value and esteem him for his
parts, learning, and virtue; but, for the soul of me, I cannot love him
in company. This will be universally the case, in common life, of every
inattentive awkward man, let his real merit and knowledge be ever so
great.

When I was of your age, I desired to shine, as far as I was able, in
every part of life; and was as attentive, to my manners, my dress, and
my air, in company on evenings, as to my books, and my tutor in the
mornings. A young fellow should be ambitious to shine in everything;
and, of the two, rather overdo than underdo. These things are by no
means trifles; they are of infinite consequence to those who are to be
thrown into the great world, and who would make a figure or a fortune in
it. It is not sufficient to deserve well, one must please well too.
Awkward, disagreeable merit, will never carry anybody far. Wherever you
find a good dancing master, pray let him put you upon your haunches; not
s