If you would particularly gain the affection and friendship of particular people,whether men or women,endeavor to find out the predominant excellency,if they have one,and their prevailing weakness,which everybody has;and do justice to the one,and something more than justice to the other.Men have various objects in which they may excel,or at least would be thought to excel;and,though they love to hear justice done to them,where they know that they excel,yet they are most and best flattered upon those points where they wish to excel,and yet are doubtful whether they do or not.As,for example,Cardinal Richelieu,who was undoubtedly the ablest statesman of his time,or perhaps of any other,had the idle vanity of being thought the best poet too;he envied the great Corneille his reputation,and ordered a criticism to be written upon the "Cid."Those,therefore,who flattered skillfully,said little to him of his abilities in state affairs,or at least but 'en passant,'
and as it might naturally occur.But the incense which they gave him,the smoke of which they knew would turn his head in their favor,was as a 'bel esprit'and a poet.Why?Because he was sure of one excellency,and distrustful as to the other.You will easily discover every man's prevailing vanity,by observing his favorite topic of conversation;for every man talks most of what he has most a mind to be thought to excel in.Touch him but there,and you touch him to the quick.The late Sir Robert Walpole (who was certainly an able man)was little open to flattery upon that head;for he was in no doubt himself about it;but his prevailing weakness was,to be thought to have a polite and happy turn to gallantry;of which he had undoubtedly less than any man living:it was his favorite and frequent subject of conversation:which proved,to those who had any penetration,that it was his prevailing weakness.And they applied to it with success.
Women have,in general,but one object,which is their beauty;upon which,scarce any flattery is too gross for them to swallow.Nature has hardly formed a woman ugly enough to be insensible to flattery upon her person;if her face is so shocking,that she must in some degree,be conscious of it,her figure and her air,she trusts,make ample amends for it.If her figure is deformed,her face,she thinks,counterbalances it.If they are both bad,she comforts herself that she has graces;a certain manner;a 'je ne sais quoi,'still more engaging than beauty.
This truth is evident,from the studied and elaborate dress of the ugliest women in the world.An undoubted,,uncontested,conscious beauty,is of all women,the least sensible of flattery upon that head;she knows that it is her due,and is therefore obliged to nobody for giving it her.She must be flattered upon her understanding;which,though she may possibly not doubt of herself,yet she suspects that men may distrust.
Do not mistake me,and think that I mean to recommend to you abject and criminal flattery:no;flatter nobody's vices or crimes:on the contrary,abhor and discourage them.But there is no living in the world without a complaisant indulgence for people's weaknesses,and innocent,though ridiculous vanities.If a man has a mind to be thought wiser,and a woman handsomer than they really are,their error is a comfortable one to themselves,and an innocent one with regard to other people;and I would rather make them my friends,by indulging them in it,than my enemies,by endeavoring (and that to no purpose)to undeceive them.
There are little attentions likewise,which are infinitely engaging,and which sensibly affect that degree of pride and self-love,which is inseparable from human nature;as they are unquestionable proofs of the regard and consideration which we have for the person to whom we pay them.As,for example,to observe the little habits,the likings,the antipathies,and the tastes of those whom we would gain;and then take care to provide them with the one,and to secure them from the other;giving them,genteelly,to understand,that you had observed that they liked such a dish,or such a room;for which reason you had prepared it:
or,on the contrary,that having observed they had an aversion to such a dish,a dislike to such a person,etc.,you had taken care to avoid presenting them.Such attention to such trifles flatters self-love much more than greater things,as it makes people think themselves almost the only objects of your thoughts and care.
These are some of the arcana necessary for your initiation in the great society of the world.I wish I had known them better at your age;I have paid the price of three-and-fifty years for them,and shall not grudge it,if you reap the advantage.Adieu.