Letters to His Son, 1746-47 / On the Fine Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman

by Earl of Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield

LETTERS TO HIS SON

1746-1747

By the EARL OF CHESTERFIELD

on the Fine Art of becoming a

MAN OF THE WORLD

and a

GENTLEMAN

PG Editor's Notes:

O. S. and N. S.: On consultation with several specialists I have learned that the abbreviations O. S. and N. S. relate to the difference between the old Julian calender used in England and the Gregorian calender which was the standard in Europe. In the mid 18th century it is said that this once amounted to a difference of eleven days. To keep track of the chronology of letters back and forth from England to France or other countries in mainland Europe, Chesterfield inserted in dates the designation O. S. (old style) and N. S. (new style).

Chesterfield demonstrates his classical education by frequent words and sometimes entire paragraphs in various languages. In the 1901 text these were in italics; in this etext edition I have substituted single quotation marks around these, as in 'bon mot', and not attempted to include the various accent marks of all the languages.

Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected. The original and occasionally variable spelling is retained throughout. D.W.