THE ART OF PLEASING. Do as THE art of pleasing is a very necessary one to possess, but a very difficult one to acquire.1 It can hardly be reduced to rules;2 and your own good sense and observation will teach you more of it than I can. you would be done by,3 is the surest method that I know of pleasing: observe carefully what pleases you in others, and probably the same things in you will please others. If you are pleased with the complaisance and attention of others to your humours, your tastes, or your weaknesses, depend upon it," the same complaisance and attention on your part to theirs will equally please them. Take the tone of the company that you are in, and do not pretend to give it; be serious, gay, or even trifling, as you find the present humour of the company: this is an attention due from every individual to the majority. Do not tell stories in company ;11 there is nothing 12 more tedious and disagreeable: if by chance you know a very short story, and exceedingly applicable to the present subject of conversation, tell it in as few words as possible; and even then throw out 13 that you do not love to tell stories, but that the shortness of it 14 tempted you.15 Of all things, 16 banish egotism 17 out of your conversation, and 10 mais très diffi &c. See page 8, 11 Ne contez jamais d'histoires en société. 12 See page 9, note 4. 14 de celle-là. 5 never think of entertaining people with your personal concerns, or private affairs; though they are interesting to you, they are tedious and impertinent to everybody else,1 besides that one cannot keep one's own private affairs too secret. Whatever you think your own excellences may be, do not affectedly display them 2 in company; nor labour, as many people do, to give that turn to the conversation which may supply you with an opportunity of exhibiting them. If they are real, they will infallibly be discovered, without your pointing them out yourself,7 and with much more advantage. Never maintain an argument with heat and clamour, though you think or know yourself to be in the right, but give your opinion modestly and coolly, which is the only way10 to convince; and, if that does not do,11 try to change the conversation by saying 12 with good humour: "We shall hardly convince one another, nor 13 is it necessary that we should ;14 so let us talk of something else."15 At last,16 remember that there is a local propriety to be observed 17 in all companies, and that what is extremely proper in one company may be, and often is, highly improper in another. These are some of the arcana necessary for your initia 1 pour toute autre personne; or, pour tous les autres; or, again, simply, pour tout le monde. 2 n'en faites point parade (or, étalage). et ne vous efforcez point. 4 See page 6, note 5 The French grammar requires that a relative pronoun should always be placed as near as possible to its antecedent. Construct, therefore, the French sentence as if the English were 'to give to the conversation that turn which,' &c. 6 de les déployer; or, de les faire paraître. 7 This turn is not French; we use sans que with the personal pronoun vous, and the subjunctive. 8 bien que vous pensiez ou que vous sachiez avoir raison. See 9 See page 7, note 17. 13 Translate here, literally, as 14 15 d'autre chose. 17 qu'il faut observer une..... &c. tion in the great society of the world. I wish I had known them better1 at your age; I have paid the price of three and fifty years for them,2 and shall not grudge it if you reap the advantage.3 Adieu.-(CHESTERFIELD, Letters to his Son.) THE LAZY MIND. THE lazy mind will not take the trouble of going to the bottom of anything; but, discouraged by the first difficulties (and everything worth knowing or having is attended with some),5 stops short, contents itself with easy and, consequently, superficial knowledge, and prefers a great degree of ignorance to a small degree of trouble." These people either think? or represent most things as impossible, whereas few things are so9 to industry and activity. But difficulties seem to them impossibilities, or at least they pretend to think them so, by way of excuse for their laziness. 11 An hour's attention12 to the same object is too laborious for them; they take every thing in the light in which it first presents itself,13 never consider it in all its different views, 14 and, in short, never think it through.1 The consequence of this is, that when they come to speak16 upon these subjects before people who have considered them with attention, they only discover 17 15 1 plût à Dieu que je les eusse mieux connus; or, simply, que ne les ai-je mieux connus. 2 je les ai achetés au prix de cinquante-trois ans. 3s'ils vous profitent. quoi que ce soit. 5 et rien de ce qui mérite d'être connu ou possédé (or, vaut qu'on le connaisse ou qu'on le possède—or, again, vaut la peine de le connaître ou de le posséder) n'en est exempt. 6 beaucoup d'ignorance à un peu de peine. regardent; or, considèrent. 8 la plupart des choses. 9 le sont; literally, 'are it.' This pronoun le is expressed in 10 French when 'so,' or any other resuming expression, is understood in English: see page 5, note 8. 10 ils feignent de les croire telles. 11 afin de justifier leur paresse. 12 Une heure d'attention. 13 dans le jour où elle se présente au premier coup d'œil. 14 sous toutes ses faces diverses. 15 ne l'examinent jamais à fond; or, ne l'approfondissent jamais. 16 viennent à parler; in the sense of 'happen to speak:' in another sense, we should say, viennent pour parler, ('for the purpose of speaking;') viennent parler would mean, come and speak.' 17 See page 5, note 12, their own ignorance and1 laziness, and lay themselves open to answers? that put them in confusion.3-(CHESTERFIELD, Letters to his Son.) ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.4 ENGLAND is the southern 5 and Scotland the northern part of the celebrated island called Great Britain. England is greatly larger than Scotland, and the land is 7 much richer, and produces better crops. There are also a great many more mens in England, and both the gentlemen and the country people are more wealthy, and they have better food and clothing, than those in Scotland. 10 The towns, also, are 11 much more numerous, and more populous. Scotland, on the contrary, is full of hills, and huge moors and wildernesses, 12 which bear no corn, and afford but little food for flocks of sheep or herds of cattle.13 But the level ground that lies along the great rivers is more fertile, and produces good crops. The natives of Scotland14 are accustomed to live more hardily in general than those of England. The cities and towns are fewer,15 smaller, and 1 et leur propre. 2 s'exposent à des réponses. The student must never fail to apply the rule, That, whenever a substantive is taken in a partitive sense, the partitive article (du, de la, and des, 'some')-whether it be expressed or understood in English -must always be expressed, in French, before such a substantive. 3 qui les rendent confus; or, qui les confondent. L'Angleterre et l'Écosse. Never forget to put, as a general rule, in French, the definite article before names of countries. See below (note 10) for an exception. 5 la partie méridionale. 6 beaucoup plus grande. 7 le sol en est. less full of inhabitants than in England. But, as Scotland possesses great quarries of stone,1 the towns are commonly built of that material, which is 2 more lasting, and has a grander effect to the eye,3 than the bricks used in England. Now, as these two nations live in the different ends5 of the same island, and are separated by large and stormy seas from all other parts of the world, it seems natural that they should have been friendly to each other, and that they should have lived as one 9 people under the same government. Accordingly, about two hundred years ago, 10 the king of Scotland becoming king of England, the two nations have ever since 11 been joined in one great kingdom, which is called Great Britain.(WALTER SCOTT, Tales of a Grandfather.) THE BRITISH EMPIRE. THE British Empire, exclusive of its foreign dependencies, 12 consists 13 of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland,14 and of the smaller islands contiguous and sub |