What can you conclude about Polonius's character from the words he spoke—and you interpreted—in his "farewell speech" to Laertes in Act I, iii?

 He's a busybody, always poking his nose in everybody's business. He is incapable of recognizing the separate personalities of other people - he can only imagine them having the same motives and desires as himself. He tries to live vicariously through his son by sending Reynaldo to tempt Laertes into the vices of Polonius' own youth. He ascribes the lecherous character of his own youth to Hamlet. He tells his daughter "what to think." His meddling has tragic consequences for his children.