Stanhope Would Find At The Academy A Number Of
Young Fellows Ignorant Of Books, And At That Age Hasty And
Petulant, so
that the avoidance of quarrels must be a young Englishman's great care.
He will be as lively as
These French boys, but a little wiser; he will
not reproach them with their ignorance, nor allow their idlenesses to
break in on the hours he has laid aside for study.
Such was the plan of a Grand Tour laid down by one of the first
gentlemen of Europe. It remains one of the best expressions of the
social influence of France upon England, and for that reason properly
belongs to the seventeenth century more than to the Georgian era in
which the letters were written. Chesterfield might be called the last of
the courtiers. He believed in accomplishments and personal elegance as a
means of advancing oneself in the world, long after the Court had ceased
to care for such qualities, or to be of much account in the destinies of
leading Englishmen. Republicanism was in the air. Chesterfield was
thinking of the France of his youth; but France had changed. In 1765,
Horace Walpole was depressed by the solemnity and austerity of French
society. Their style of conversation was serious, pedantic, and seldom
animated except by a dispute on some philosophic subject.[375] In fact,
Chesterfield was admiring the France of Louis the Fourteenth long after
"Le Soleil" had set, and the country was sombre. It was the eve of the
day when France was to imitate the democratic ideals of England.
England, at last, instead of being on the outskirts of civilization, was
coming to be the most powerful, respected, and enlightened country in
Europe.
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