The Art of Worldly Wisdom(87)

Culture and Elegance. Man is born a barbarian, and only raises himself above the beast by culture. Culture therefore makes the man; the more a man, the higher. Thanks to this, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Greece could call the rest of the world barbarians. Ignorance is very raw; nothing contributes so much to culture as knowledge. But even knowledge is coarse if without elegance. Not alone must our intelligence be elegant, but also our desires, and above all our conversation. Some people are naturally elegant in internal and external qualities, in their thoughts, in their words, in their dress, which is the rind of the soul, and in their talents, which are its fruit. There are others, on the other hand, so gauche that everything about them, even their very excellences, is tarnished by an intolerable and barbaric want of neatness.