True Cultivation?

What were the qualities which the good tutor would look for, instil, and cultivate in his pupil in the year 1680?

Firstly, physical courage, without which all other inherited or acquired accomplishments would be not only useless, but worse than useless, serving merely to emphasize the lack of the one essential quality. Politeness: a knowledge of the world: piety, or at worst, a scrupulous observance of the externals of religion: an open-handed carelessness, real or simulated, in money matters: conformity to a standard of good taste high enough to enable one to offer intelligent criticism of a cook, a sermon, a jewel, a play, or the layout of a friend's garden. If nature has endowed you with any brains, so much the better, for you will have the much envied gift of being able to say a good thing, or of turning out an acceptable set of drawing room verses. But otherwise, dispossession of brains is not a quality to be paraded, still less must you make a show of acquired knowledge; Chavigny, in 1705, published a conversation piece for the guidance of the would-be honnete homme which contains this significant bit of dialogue:

Q. “Is it necessary for persons of quality to understand painting, music,
and architecture?”

A. “It is a good thing that they should be instructed in these matters,
but they must not let it appear that they are skilled in them."

An affectation of amateurishness, in fact, is that which gives the final polish to the well-bred man's character.

W.H. ‘Warnie’ Lewis ~ The Sunset of the Splendid Century
(William Sloan Associates) 1955

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