The indulgence you applaud in Chesterfield is the
only part of his writings I think reprehensible. Such lessons from so
able a pen are dangerous to a young mind, and ought never to be read
till the judgment and heart are established in virtue. If Rousseau's
ghost can reach this quarter of the globe, he will certainly haunt you
for this scheme--'tis striking at the root of his design, and
destroying the main purport of his admirable production. Les
foiblesses de l'humanite, is an easy apology; or rather, a license to
practise intemperance; and is particularly agreeable and flattering to
such practitioners, as it brings the most virtuous on a level with the
vicious. But I am fully of opinion that it is a much greater chimera
than the world are willing to acknowledge. Virtue, like religion,
degenerates to nothing, because it is convenient to neglect her
precepts. You have, undoubtedly, a mind superior to the contagion.
When all the world turn envoys, Chesterfield will be their proper
guide. Morality and virtue are not necessary qualifications--those
only are to be attended to that tend to the public weal. But when
parents have no ambitious views, or rather, when they are of the more
exalted kind, when they wish to form a happy, respectable member of
society--a firm, pleasing support to their declining life, Emilius
shall be the model. A man so formed must be approved by his Creator,
and more useful to mankind than ten thousand modern beaux.
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