Today we remember Philip Dormer Stanhope, the British statesman, wit, and diplomat who was born on September 22 in 1694. The man who became the fourth Earl of Chesterfield is today remembered chiefly as the author of Letters to His Son, a book dispensing advice on manners, the art of pleasing, and the art of worldly success.

Chesterfield's image as a cynical man of the world was shaped partly by Samuel Johnson's observation that Letters taught "the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing master" and partly by such Chesterfield tips as "Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh." But Chesterfield's more commendable counsel includes such elegant observations as "Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least" and "Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well."

He also advised his son to "wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not pull it out and strike it, merely to show that you have one."

We're not trying to show off our own learning, but we thought you'd be interested to know that the chesterfield that identifies either a style of semifitted overcoat or a style of davenport was named not for the fourth Earl of Chesterfield but for one of his 19th-century descendants.

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