LONDON,December 24,1750
DEAR FRIEND:At length you are become a Parisian,and consequently must be addressed in French;you will also answer me in the same language,that I may be able to judge of the degree in which you possess the elegance,the delicacy,and the orthography of that language which is,in a manner,become the universal one of Europe.I am assured that you speak it well,but in that well there are gradations.He,who in the provinces might be reckoned to speak correctly,would at Paris be looked upon as an ancient Gaul.In that country of mode,even language is subservient to fashion,which varies almost as often as their clothes.
The AFFECTED,the REFINED,the NEOLOGICAL,OR NEW FASHIONABLE STYLE are at present too much in vogue at Paris.Know,observe,and occasionally converse (if you please)according to those different styles;but do not let your taste be infected by them.Wit,too,is there subservient to fashion;and actually,at Paris,one must have wit,even in despite of Minerva.Everybody runs after it;although if it does not come naturally and of itself;it never can be overtaken.But,unfortunately for those who pursue,they seize upon what they take for wit,and endeavor to pass it for such upon others.This is,at best,the lot of Ixion,who embraced a cloud instead of the goddess he pursued.Fine sentiments,which never existed,false and unnatural thoughts,obscure and far-sought expressions,not only unintelligible,but which it is even impossible to decipher,or to guess at,are all the consequences of this error;and two-thirds of the new French books which now appear are made up of those ingredients.It is the new cookery of Parnassus,in which the still is employed instead of the pot and the spit,and where quintessences and extracts ate chiefly used.N.B.The Attic salt is proscribed.
You will now and then be obliged to eat of this new cookery,but do not suffer your taste to be corrupted by it.And when you,in your turn,are desirous of treating others,take the good old cookery of Lewis XIV.'s reign for your rule.There were at that time admirable head cooks,such as Corneille,Boileau,Racine,and La Fontaine.Whatever they prepared was simple,wholesome,and solid.But laying aside all metaphors,do not suffer yourself to be dazzled by false brilliancy,by unnatural expressions,nor by those antitheses so much in fashion:as a protection against such innovations,have a recourse to your own good sense,and to the ancient authors.On the other hand,do not laugh at those who give into such errors;you are as yet too young to act the critic,or to stand forth a severe avenger of the violated rights of good sense.Content yourself with not being perverted,but do not think of converting others;let them quietly enjoy their errors in taste,as well as in religion.
Within the course of the last century and a half,taste in France has (as well as that kingdom itself)undergone many vicissitudes.Under the reign of I do not say Lewis XIII.but of Cardinal de Richelieu,good taste first began to make its way.It was refined under that of Lewis XIV.,a great king,at least,if not a great man.Corneille was the restorer of true taste,and the founder of the French theatre;although rather inclined to the Italian 'Concetti'and the Spanish 'Agudeze'.
Witness those epigrams which he makes Chimene utter in the greatest excess of grief.
Before his time,those kind of itinerant authors,called troubadours or romanciers,were a species of madmen who attracted the admiration of fools.Toward the end of Cardinal de Richelieu's reign,and the beginning of Lewis XIV.'s,the Temple of Taste was established at the Hotel of Rambouillet;but that taste was not judiciously refined this Temple of Taste might more properly have been named a Laboratory of Wit,where good sense was put to the torture,in order to extract from it the most subtile essence.There it was that Voiture labored hard and incessantly to create wit.At length,Boileau and Moliere fixed the standard of true taste.In spite of the Scuderys,the Calprenedes,etc.,they defeated and put to flight ARTAMENES,JUBA,OROONDATES,and all those heroes of romance,who were,notwithstanding (each of them),as good as a whole Army.Those madmen then endeavored to obtain an asylum in libraries;this they could not accomplish,but were under a necessity of taking shelter in the chambers of some few ladies.I would have you read one volume of "Cleopatra,"and one of "Clelia";it will otherwise be impossible for you to form any idea of the extravagances they contain;but God keep you from ever persevering to the twelfth.