Monday, July 8, 2013

చెస్టర్‌ఫీల్డ్ సలహాలు - APPENDIX


APPENDIX



MEANIGS OF SOME FRENCH WORDS USED IN
THIS BOOK


ton: the prevailing fashion; style.

beau monde: fashionable society.

bon mot: a clever saying; witty remark.

outré: unconventional

minutia: very small matters; trifling details

mauvaise honte: excessive modesty or shame;

bourgeois: of or characteristic of the middle class

billet-doux: a love letter.

mutatis mutandis: with the necessary changes.

en passant: in passing; by the way; incidentally.

bel esprit: a person of genius or brilliant wit.

je ne sais quoi: an indefinable something.

decorum: proper behavior; good taste in conduct.

ipse dixit: a dogmatic assertion; opinion based merely on someone's authority.



MEANINGS OF SOME PHRASES


at cross purposes: misunderstanding each other's purpose.

cross-purposes: a game of questioning and answering in which words having different meanings having different meanings.

Drinking of healths: a drink in honor of a person with a wish that he may be healthy and happy.



DETAILS OF SOME GREAT PERSONS OF ANCIENT TIMES WHOSE NAMES ARE MARKED WITH ASTERISK



Diogenes: Diogenes (412?-323 B.C.) belonged to the Cynic school of ancient Greek philosophy. The Cynics taught that a person should lead a life of self-control and be free from all desire for material things and pleasures.  Diogenes carried this view to extremes in his own life.

Horace: Horace (65-8 B.C.) was one of the greatest poets of ancient Rome.  He is most famous for Odes, a collection of short, songlike poems.

Virgil: Virgil (70-19 B.C.) was the greatest poet of ancient Rome and one of the outstanding poets in world literature.  His masterpiece was the Aeneid, the national epic of Rome. His full name was Publius Vergilius Maro.

Ovid: Ovid (43 B.C.-A.D. 17?) was a great Roman poet. His full name was Publius Ovidius Naso.  He became best known for his witty and sophisticated love poems. Ovid's most famous work is the Art of Love.

Homer: Homer is traditionally considered the ancient Greek poet who composed the great epics the Iliad and the Odyssey. Scholars know almost nothing about Homer.

Cicero: Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106-43 B.C.), was a great Roman orator and statesman.  His written orations and philosophical and religious essays made him one of the most influential authors in Latin literature.  In his writings, Cicero translated into Latin ideas and technical terms that had previously existed only in Greek.  Cicero so improved Latin that it served as the international language of intellectual communication for centuries.

Demosthenes: Demosthenes (384?-322 B.C.) was an Athenian statesman who is usually considered to have been the greatest Greek orator.




Sunday, July 7, 2013

చెస్టర్‌ఫీల్డ్ సలహాలు - VIRTUE


VIRTUE


     VIRTUE is a subject which deserves your and every man’s attention. It consists in doing good and in speaking truth: the effects of it, therefore, are advantageous to all mankind, and to one’s self in particular. Virtue makes us pity and relieve the misfortunes of mankind; it makes us promote justice and good order in society; and, in general, contributes to whatever tends to the real good of mankind. To ourselves it gives an inward comfort and satisfaction, which nothing else can do, and which nothing else can rob us of. All other advantages depend upon others, as much as upon ourselves. Riches, power, and greatness, may be taken away from us by the violence and injustice of others, or by inevitable accidents; but virtue depends only upon ourselves, and nobody can take it away from us. Sickness may deprive us of all the pleasures of the body; but it cannot deprive us of virtue, not of the satisfaction which we feel from it. A virtuous man, under all the misfortunes of life, still finds an inward comfort and satisfaction, which makes him happier than any wicked man can be with all the other advantages of life. If a man has acquired great power and riches by falsehood, injustice, and oppression, he cannot enjoy them; because his conscience will torment him, and constantly reproach him with the means by which he got them. The stings of his conscience will not even let him sleep quietly; but he will dream of his crimes; and in the daytime, when alone, and when he has time to think, he will be uneasy and melancholy. He is afraid of every thing; for as he knows mankind must hate him, he has reason to think they will hurt him if they can. Whereas, if a virtuous man be ever so poor and unfortunate in the world, still his virtue is its own reward, and will comfort him under all afflictions. The quiet and satisfaction of his conscience make him cheerful by day and sleep sound at night: he can be alone with pleasure, and is not afraid of his own thoughts. Virtue forces her way, and shines through the obscurity of a retired life; and, sooner or later, it always is rewarded.

     To conclude: Lord Shaftesbury says, that he would be virtuous for his own sake, though nobody were to know it; as he would be clean for his own sake, though nobody were to see him.




END OF CHESTERFIELD’S ADVICE


హోమ్‌పేజి


Saturday, July 6, 2013

చెస్టర్‌ఫీల్డ్ సలహాలు - VANITY


VANITY

     BE extremely on your guard against vanity, the common failing of inexperienced youth, but particularly against that kind of vanity that dubs a man a coxcomb: a character which, once acquired, is more indelible than that of the priesthood. It is not to be imagined by how many different ways vanity defeats its own purposes. One man decides peremptorily upon every subject, betrays his ignorance upon many, and shows a disgusting presumption upon the rest; another desires to appear successful among the women: he hints at the encouragement he has received from those of the most distinguished rank and beauty, and intimates a particular connection with some one. If it is true, it is ungenerous; if false, it is infamous: but in either case he destroys the reputation he wants to get. Some flatter their vanity by little extraneous objects, which have not the least relation to themselves; such as being descended from, related to, or acquainted with, people of distinguished merit and eminent characters. They talk perpetually of their grandfather Such-a-one, their uncle Such-a-one, and their intimate friend Mr. Such-a-one, whom, possibly, they are hardly acquainted with. But admitting it all to be as they would have it, what then? Have they the more merit for those accidents? Certainly not. On the contrary, their taking up adventitious proves their want of intrinsic merit: a rich man never borrows. Take this rule for granted, as a never-failing one; that you must never seem to affect the character in which you have a mind to shine. Modesty is the only sure bait, when you angle for praise. The affectation of courage will make even a brave man pass only for a bully; as the affectation of wit will make a man of parts pass for a coxcomb. By this modesty I do not mean timidity and awkward bashfulness. On the contrary, be inwardly firm and steady: know your own value whatever it may be, and act upon that principle; but take great care to let nobody discover that you do know your own value. Whatever real merit you have, other people will discover; and people always magnify their own discoveries, as they lessen those of others.




Friday, July 5, 2013

చెస్టర్‌ఫీల్డ్ సలహాలు - EMPLOYMENT OF TIME



EMPLOYMENT OF TIME



     HOW little do we reflect on the use and value of time! It is in everybody's mouth, but in few people's practice. Every fool, who slatterns away his whole time in nothings, frequently utters some trite common-place sentence to prove, at once, the value and the fleetness of time. The sun-dials, all over Europe, have some ingenious inscription to that effect; so that nobody squanders away their time without frequently hearing and seeing how necessary it is to employ it well, and how irrecoverable it is if lost. Young people are apt to think they have so much time before them, that they may squander what they please of it, and yet have enough left; as great fortunes have frequently seduced people to a ruinous profusion. But all these admonitions are useless, where there is not a fund of good sense and reason to suggest rather than to receive them.


IDLENESS


     TIME is precious, life short, and consequently not a single moment should be lost. Sensible men know how to make the most of time, and put out their whole sum either to interest or pleasure: they are never idle, but continually employed either in amusements or study. It is an universal maxim, that idleness is the mother of vice. It is, however, certain, that laziness is the inheritance of fools; and nothing can be so despicable as a sluggard. Cato, the censor, a wise and virtuous Roman, used to say, there were but three actions of his life that he regretted. The first was, the having revealed a secret to his wife; the second, that he had once gone by sea when he might have gone by land; and the third, the having passed one day without doing any thing. 


READING


     “TAKE care of the pence; for the pounds will take care of themselves,” was a very just and sensible reflection of old Mr. Lowndes, the famous secretary of the treasury under William III., Anne, and George I. I therefore recommend to you to take care of minutes; for hours will take care of themselves. Be doing something or other all day long; and not neglect half hours and quarters of hours, which, at the year’s end, amount to a great sum. For instance, there are many short intervals in the day, between studies and pleasures: instead of sitting idle and yawning in those intervals, snatch up some valuable book, and continue the reading of that book till you have got through it: never burden your mind with more than one thing at a time; and, in reading this book, do not run it over superficially, but read every passage twice over, at least: do not pass on to a second, till you thoroughly understand the first, nor quit the book till you are master of the subject; for, unless you do this, you may read it through, and not remember the contents of it for a week. The books I would particularly recommend, amongst others, are the Marchioness Lambert’s “Advice to her Son and Daughter,” Cardinal Retz’s “Maxims,” Rochefoucauld’s “Moral Reflections,” Bruyere’s “Characters,” Fontenelle’s “Plurality of Worlds,” Sir Josiah Child on Trade, Bolingbroke’s “Works:” for style, his “Remarks on the History of England,” under the name of Sir John Oldcastle; Puffendorf’s Jus Gentium, and Grotius de jure Belli et Pacis: the last two are well translated by Barbeyrac. For occasional half-hours or less, read works of invention, wit, and humour; but never waste your minutes on trifling authors, either ancient or modern.

     Nor are pleasures idleness, or time lost, provided they are the pleasures of a rational being: on the contrary, a certain portion of time employed in those pleasures is very usefully employed.


TRANSACTING BUSINESS


     WHATEVER business you have, do it the first moment you can; never by halves, but finish it without interruption, if possible. Business must not be sauntered and trifled with; and you must not say to it, as Felix did to Paul, "At a more convenient season I will speak to thee." The most convenient season for business is the first; but study and business, in some measure, point out their own times to a man of sense. Time is much oftener squandered away in the wrong choice and improper methods of amusement and pleasures.


METHOD


     DISPATCH is the soul of business; and nothing contributes more to dispatch than method. Lay down a method for everything, and stick to it inviolably, as far as unexpected incidents may allow. Fix one certain hour and day in the week for your accounts, and keep them together in their proper order; by which means they will require very little time, and you can never be much cheated. Whatever letters and papers you keep, docket and tie them up in their respective classes, so that you may instantly have recourse to any one. Lay down a method also for your reading, for which you allot a certain share of your mornings: let it be in a consistent and consecutive course, and not in that desultory and immethodical manner, in which many people read scraps of different authors upon different subjects. Keep a useful and short common-place book of what you read, to help your memory only, and not for pedantic quotations. Never read history without having maps, and a chronological book of tables lying by you, and constantly recurred to; without which history is only a confused heap of facts.

     You will say, it may be, as many young people would, that all this order and method is very troublesome, only fit for dull people, and a disagreeable restraint upon the noble spirit and fire of youth. I deny it; and assert, on the contrary, that it will procure you both more time and more taste for your pleasures; and so far from being troublesome to you, that, after you have pursued it a month, it would be troublesome to you to lay it aside. Business whets the appetite, and gives a taste to pleasures, as exercise does to food; and business can never be done without method: it raises the spirits for pleasures; and a spectacle, a ball, an assembly, will much more sensibly affect a man who has employed, than a man who has lost, the preceding part of the day; nay, I will venture to say, that a fine lady will seem to have more charms to a man of study or business than to a saunterer. The same listlessness runs through his whole conduct, and he is as insipid in his pleasures, as inefficient in everything else.

     I hope you earn your pleasures, and consequently taste them; for, by the way, I know a great many who call themselves men of pleasure, but who in truth have none. They adopt other people's indiscriminately, but without any taste of their own. I have known them often inflict excesses upon themselves, because they thought them genteel; though they sat as awkwardly upon them as other people's clothes would have done. Have no pleasures but your own, and then you will shine in them.

     Many people think that they are in pleasures, provided that they are neither in study nor in business. Nothing like it: they are doing nothing, and might just as well be asleep. They contract habitudes from laziness, and they only frequent those places where they are free from all restraints and attentions. Be upon your guard against this idle profusion of time; and let every place you go to be either the scene of quick and lively pleasures, or the school of your own improvements; let every company you go into either gratify your senses, extend your knowledge, or refine your manners.

     If, by accident, two or three hours are sometimes wanting for some useful purpose, borrow them from your sleep. Six, or at most seven hours sleep is, for a constancy, as much as you or anybody can want; more is only laziness and dozing; and is both unwholesome and stupefying. If, by chance, your business or your pleasures should keep you up till four or five o'clock in the morning, rise exactly at your usual time, that you may not lose the precious morning hours, and that the want of sleep may force you to go to bed earlier the next night.


GUARD AGAINST FRIVOLOUSNESS


     ABOVE all things guard against frivolousness. The frivolous mind is always busied, but to little purpose: it takes little objects for great ones, and throws away upon trifles that time and attention which only important things deserve. Knick-knacks, butterflies, shells, insects, etc., are the subjects of their most serious researches. They contemplate the dress, not the character, of the company they keep. They attend more to the decorations of a play than to the sense of it; and to the ceremonies of a court, more than to its politics. Such an employment of time is an absolute loss of it.

     To conclude this subject: sloth, indolence, and effeminacy are pernicious and unbecoming a young fellow: let them be your resource forty years hence at soonest. Determine, at all events, and however disagreeable it may be to you in some respects, and for some time, to keep the most distinguished and fashionable company of the place you are at, either for their rank or for their learning, or le bel esprit et le gout. This gives you credentials to the best companies, wherever you go afterwards.

     Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till to-morrow what you can do today. That was the rule of the famous and unfortunate pensionary De Witt; who, by strictly following it, found time not only to do the whole business of the republic, but to pass his evenings at assemblies and suppers, as if he had nothing else to do or think of.





Thursday, July 4, 2013

చెస్టర్‌ఫీల్డ్ సలహాలు - RELIGION



RELIGION


     ERRORS and mistakes, however gross, in matters of opinion, if they are sincere, are to be pitied; but not punished, nor laughed at. The blindness of the understanding is as much to be pitied as the blindness of the eyes; and it is neither laughable nor criminal for a man to lose his way in either case. Charity bids us endeavor to set him right, by arguments and persuasions; but charity, at the same time, forbids us either to punish or ridicule his misfortune. Every man seeks for truth; but God only knows who has found it. It is unjust to persecute and absurd to ridicule people for their several opinions, which they cannot help entertaining upon the conviction of their reason. It is he who tells or acts a lie that is guilty, and not he who honestly and sincerely believes the lie.

     The object of all the public worships in the world is the same: it is that great Eternal Being who created everything. The different manners of worship are by no means subjects of ridicule. Every sect thinks his own the best; and I know no infallible judge in this world to decide which is the best.




Wednesday, July 3, 2013

చెస్టర్‌ఫీల్డ్ సలహాలు - PREJUDICES



PREJUDICES

 

     NEVER adopt the notions of any books you may read, or of any company you may keep, without examining whether they are just or not; as you will otherwise be liable to be hurried away by prejudices, instead of being guided by reason, and quietly cherish error, instead of seeking for truth.

     Use and assert your own reason: reflect, examine, and analyze everything, in order to form a sound and mature judgment: let no ipse dixit impose upon your understanding, mislead your actions, or dictate your conversation. Be early what, if you are not, you will, when too late, wish you had been. Consult your reason betimes; I do not say that it will always prove an unerring guide, for human reason is not infallible; but it will prove the least erring guide that you can follow. Books and conversation may assist it; but adopt neither blindly and implicitly: try both by that best rule, which God has given to direct us,—reason. Of all the troubles, do not decline, as many people do, that of thinking. The herd of mankind can hardly be said to think; their notions are almost all adoptive: and, in general, I believe it is better that it should be so; as such common prejudices contribute more to order and quiet than their own separate reasonings would do, uncultivated and unimproved as they are.

     Local prejudices prevail only with the herd of mankind, and do not impose upon cultivated, informed, and reflecting minds; but then there are notions equally false, though not so glaringly absurd, which are entertained by people of superior and improved understandings, merely for want of the necessary pains to investigate, the proper attention to examine, the penetration requisite to determine the truth. Those are the prejudices which I would have you guard against by a manly exertion and attention of your reasoning faculty.




Tuesday, July 2, 2013

చెస్టర్‌ఫీల్డ్ సలహాలు - PLEASURE



PLEASURE



     MANY young people adopt pleasures, for which they have not the least taste, only because they are called by that name. They often mistake so totally, as to imagine that debauchery is pleasure. Drunkenness, which is equally destructive to body and mind, is certainly a fine pleasure! Gaming, which draws us into a thousand scrapes, leaves us penniless, and gives us the air and manners of an outrageous madman, is another most exquisite pleasure!

     Pleasure is the rock which most young people split upon; they launch out with crowded sails in quest of it, but without a compass to direct their course, or reason sufficient to steer the vessel; therefore pain and shame, instead of pleasure, are the returns of their voyage.

     A man of pleasure, in the vulgar acceptation of that phrase, means only a beastly drunkard, an abandoned rake, and profligate swearer. We should weigh the present enjoyment of our pleasures against the unavoidable consequence of them, and then let our common sense determine the choice.

     We may enjoy the pleasures of the table and the wine, but stop short of the pains inseparably annexed to an excess in either. We may let other people do as they will, without formally and sententiously rebuking them for it; but we must be firmly resolved not to destroy our own faculties and constitution, in compliance with those who have no regard to their own. We may play to give us pleasure, but not to give us pain; we may play for trifles in mixed companies, to amuse ourselves, and conform to custom. Good company are not fond of having a man reeling drunk among them; nor is it agreeable to see another tearing his hair and blaspheming, for having lost at play more than he is able to pay; or a rake, with half a nose, crippled by coarse and infamous debauches. Those who practice and brag of these things make no part of good company; and are most unwillingly, if ever, admitted into it. A real man of fashion and pleasure observes decency; at least he neither borrows nor affects vices; and if he is so unfortunate as to have any, he gratifies them with choice, delicacy, and secrecy.

     We should be as attentive to our pleasures as to our studies. In the latter we should observe and reflect upon all we read; and in the former, be watchful and attentive to every thing we see and hear; and let us never have it to say, as some fools do, of things that were said and done before their faces, “That, indeed, they did not mind them, because they were thinking of something else.” Why were they thinking of something else? And if they were, why did they come there? Wherever we are, we should (as it is vulgarly expressed) have our ears and eyes about us. We should listen to everything that is said, and see everything that is done. Let us observe, without being thought observers; for otherwise people will be upon their guard before us.

     All gaming, field-sports, and such other amusements, where neither the understanding nor the senses have the least share, are frivolous, and the resources of little minds, who either do not think or do not love to think. But the pleasures of a man of parts either flatter the senses or improve the mind.

     There are liberal and illiberal pleasures, as well as liberal and illiberal arts. Sottish drunkenness, indiscriminate gluttony, driving coaches, rustic sports, such as fox-chases, horse-races, etc., are infinitely below the honest and industrious profession of a tailor and a shoemaker.

     The more we apply to business, the more we relish our pleasures; the exercise of the mind in the morning, by study, whets the appetite for the pleasures of the evening, as the exercise of the body whets the appetite for dinner. Business and pleasure, rightly understood, mutually assist each other,—instead of being enemies, as foolish or dull people often think them. We cannot taste pleasures truly, unless we can relish them by previous business; and few people do business well, who do nothing else. But, when I speak of pleasures, I always mean the elegant pleasures of a rational being, and not the brutal ones of a swine.




Monday, July 1, 2013

చెస్టర్‌ఫీల్డ్ సలహాలు - PEDANTRY


PEDANTRY


     EVERY excellence, and every virtue, has its kindred vice or weakness; and, if carried beyond certain bounds, sinks into the one or the other. Generosity often runs into profusion, economy into avarice, courage into rashness, caution into timidity, and so on;—insomuch that, I believe, there is more judgment required for the proper conduct of our virtues, than for avoiding their opposite vices. Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks at first sight; and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not, at first, wear the mask of some virtue. But virtue is, in itself, so beautiful, that it charms us at first sight; engages us more and more, upon farther acquaintance; and, as with other beauties, we think excess impossible. It is here that judgment is necessary to moderate and direct the efforts of an excellent cause. In the same manner, great learning, if not accompanied with sound judgment, frequently carries us into error, pride, and pedantry.


NEVER PRONOUNCE ARBITRARILY


     SOME learned men, proud of their knowledge, only speak to decide, and give judgment without appeal; the consequence of which is, that mankind, provoked by the insult and injured by the oppression, revolt; and, in order to shake off the tyranny, even call the lawful authority in question. The more you know, the modester you should be; and that modesty is the surest way of gratifying your vanity. Even where you are sure, seem rather doubtful; represent, but do not pronounce; and, if you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.


AFFECT NOT TO PREFER THE ANCIENTS TO THE MODERNS


     OTHERS, to show their learning, or often from the prejudices of a school education, where they hear of nothing else, are always talking of the ancients as something more than men, and of the moderns as something less. They are never without a classic or two in their pockets; they stick to the good old sense; they read none of the modern trash; and will show you plainly, that no improvement has been made, in any one art or science, these last seventeen hundred years. I would by no means have you disown your acquaintance with the ancients; but still less would I have you brag of an exclusive intimacy with them. Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry; judge them all by their merits, but not by their ages; and, if you happen to have an Elzevir classic in your pocket, neither show it nor mention it.


REASON NOT FROM ANCIENT AUTHORITY


     SOME great scholars, most absurdly, draw all their maxims, both for public and private life, from what they call parallel cases in the ancient authors; without considering that, in the first place, there never were, since the creation of the world, two cases exactly parallel; and, in the next place, that there never was a case stated, or even known, by any historian, with every one of its circumstances; which, however, ought to be known, in order to be reasoned from. Reason upon the case itself, and the several circumstances that attend it, and act accordingly; but not from the authority of ancient poets or historians. Take into your consideration, if you please, cases seemingly analogous; but take them as helps only, not as guides.


ABSTAIN FROM LEARNED OSTENTATION


     THERE is another species of learned men, who, though less dogmatical and supercilious, are not less impertinent. These are the communicative and shining pedants, who adorn their conversation, even with women, by happy quotations of Greek and Latin; and who have contracted such a familiarity with the Greek and Roman authors, that they call them by certain names or epithets, denoting intimacy; as OLD Homer*; that SLY ROGUE Horace*; MARO, instead of Virgil*; and Naso, Instead of Ovid*. These are often imitated by coxcombs who have no learning at all, but who have got some names and scraps of some ancient authors by heart, which they improperly and impertinently retail in all companies, in hopes of passing for scholars. If, therefore, you would avoid the accusation of pedantry on one hand, or the suspicion of ignorance on the other, abstain from learned ostentation. Speak the language of the company you are in: speak it purely, and unlarded with any other. Never seem wiser nor more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out, and strike it, merely to show that you have one. If you are asked what o'clock it is, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman.