to get as near it as I can.  I will approach it every day, possibly, I may arrive at it at last; at least, what I am sure is in my own power, I will not be distanced.  Many fools (speaking of you) say to me:  What! would you have him perfect?  I answer:  Why not?  What hurt would it do him or me?  O, but that is impossible, say they; I reply, I am not sure of that:  perfection in the abstract, I admit to be unattainable, but what is commonly called perfection in a character I maintain to be attainable, and not only that, but in every man’s power.  He hath, continue they, a good head, a good heart, a good fund of knowledge, which would increase daily:  What would you have more?  Why, I would have everything more that can adorn and complete a character.  Will it do his head, his heart, or his knowledge any harm, to have the utmost delicacy of manners, the most shining advantages of air and address, the most endearing attentions, and the most engaging graces?  But as he is, say they, he is loved wherever he is known.  I am very glad of it, say I; but I would have him be liked before he is known, and loved afterward.  I would have him, by his first abord and address, make people wish to know him, and inclined to love him:  he will save a great deal of time by it.  Indeed, reply they, you are too nice, too exact, and lay too much stress upon things that are of very little consequence.  Indeed, rejoin I, you know very little of the nature of mankind, if you take those things to be of little consequence:  one cannot be too attentive to them; it is they that always engage the heart, of which the understanding is commonly the bubble.  And I would much rather that he erred in a point of grammar, of history, of philosophy, etc., than in point of manners and address.  But consider, he is very young; all this will come in time.  I hope so; but that time must be when he is young, or it will never be at all; the right ‘pli’ must be taken young, or it will never be easy or seem natural.  Come, come, say they (substituting, as is frequently done, assertion instead of argument), depend upon it he will do very well:  and you have a great deal of reason to be satisfied with him.  I hope and believe he will do well, but I would have him do better than well.  I am very well pleased with him, but I would be more, I would be proud of him.  I would have him have lustre as well as weight.  Did you ever know anybody that reunited all these talents?  Yes, I did; Lord Bolingbroke joined all the politeness, the manners, and the graces of a courtier, to the solidity of a statesman, and to the learning of a pedant.  He was ‘omnis homo’; and pray what should hinder my boy from being so too, if he ’hath, as I think he hath, all the other qualifications that you allow him?  Nothing can hinder him, but neglect of or inattention to, those objects which his own good sense must tell him are, of infinite consequence to him, and which therefore I will not suppose him capable of either neglecting or despising.