Note 26 — LETTER LXXI.

Full of affected graces, and a master sufficiently profound of the important inanities, the nothings of the fine world; and of that sweetest art so eloquent, which can talk so long and say nothing; with traits of malice, mirthful at another's expense: always in his mouth that decisive tone, that amiable insolence, which, with equal freedom at a glance, praises or condemns by wholesale.—Tr.

[27] It is that which most approaches to virtue, which neither stupifies, nor degrades the understanding, but, on the contrary, exercises it and gives agility, and few who play at it have the gout.—Tr.