Virtue and learning, like gold, have their intrinsic value; but if they are not polished, they certainly lose a great deal of their lustre； and even polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold.
What a number of sins does the cheerful, easy good?breeding of the French frequently cover! Many of them want common sense, many more common learning; but, in general, they make up so much, by their manner, for those defects, that, frequently, they pass undiscovered.
I have often said, and do think, that a Frenchman, who, with a fund of virtue, learning, and good?sense, has the manners and good?breeding of his country, is the perfection of human nature. This perfection you may, if you please, and I hope you will, arrive at.