Fourth Earl of Chesterfield,born on 22 Sepetember 1964.
Entered House of Commons,1715;House of Loads,1726.Retired from official life,1755
Died on 24 March 1773.
Dear Boy,
London June 21, O.S. 1748
Your very bad enunciation runs so much in my head, and gives me such real concern, that it will be the subject of this, and I believe of many more letters. I congratulate both you and myself that I was informed of it (as I hope) in time to prevent it; and shall ever think myself, as hereafter you will I am sure think yourself, infinately obliged to Sir Charles Williams for informing me of it. Good God! If this ungraceful and disagreeable manner of speaking had, either by your negligence or mine, become habitual to you, as in a couple of years more it would have been, what a figure would you have made in company or in a public assembly! Who would have liked you in the one, or have attended you in the other? Read Cicero and Quintilian say of enunciation, and see what a stress they lay upon the gracefulness of it; nay, Cicero goes further, and even maintains that a good figure is necessary for an orator; and, particularly, that he must not be vastus-that is, overgrown and clumsy. He shows by it, that he knew mankind well. and knew the powers of an agreeable figure and graceful manner.
Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings. The way to the heart is through the senses; please their eyes and their ears, and the work is half done. I have frequently known a man's fortune decided for ever by his first address. If it is pleasing, people are hurried involuntarily into a persuation that ne has a merit which possibly he has not; as, on the other hand, if it is ungraceful , they are immediately prejudiced against him, and unwilling to allow him