fufpect you the most, which makes me recur to it fo often; for I fear that you are apt to fhow too little attention to every body, and too much contempt to many. Be convinced, that there are no perfons fo infignificant and inconfiderable, but may, fome time or other, and in fome thing or other, have it in their power to be of ufe to you; which they certainly will not, if you have once fhown them contempt. W Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it for ever. It implies a difcovery of weak neffes, which we are much more careful to conceal than crimes. Many a man will confefs his crimes to a common friend, but I never knew a man who would tell his filly weakneffes to his moft intimate one. As many a friend will tell us our faults without reserve, who will not fo much as hint at our follies; that dif covery is too mortifying to our felf-love, either to tell. another, or to be told of one's-felf. You must, therefore, never expect to hear of your weakneffes, or your follies, from any body but me; thofe I will take pains to difcover, and whenever I do, fhall tell you of them. Next to manners, are exterior graces of perfon and addrefs; which adorn manners, as manners adorn knowledge. To fay that they pleafe, engage, and charm, as they most indifputably do, is faying, that one fhould do every thing poffible to acquire them. The graceful manner of fpeaking is, particularly, what I hall always hollow in your ears, as Hotfpur hollowed Mortimer to Henry IV; and like him too, I have a mind to have a starling taught to fay, speak diftin&ly and gracefully, and fend him to you, to replace your lofs of the unfortunate Matzel * ; who, by the way, I am told, fpoke his language very diftinctly and gracefully. I hope you do not forget to inquire into the affairs of trade and commerce, nor to get the best accounts you Can of the commodities and manufactures, exports and imports, of the feveral countries where you may be, and their grofs value. I would like wife have you attend to the refpectiv. * Favourite bulfinch which died. coins, gold, filver, copper, &c. and their value com pared with our coins, for which purpose, I would advife you to put up, in a feparate piece of paper, one piece of every kind, wherever you thall be, writing upon it the name and the value. Such a collection will be curious enough in itfelf; and that fort of knowledge will be very ufeful to you in your way of business, where the different value of money often comes in question. L'Abbé Mably's Droit de l'Europe, which Mr. Harte is fo kind as to fend me, is worth your readingAdieu ! LETTER LVIII. Indelent and frivelous Minds characterised. DEAR BOY, THERE London, July the 26th. HERE are two forts of understandings; one of which hinders a man from ever being confiderable, and the other commonly makes him ridiculous ; I mean the lazy mind, and the trifling frivolous mind. Yours, I hope, is neither. The lazy mind will not take the trouble of going to the bottom of any thing; but, dif couraged by the firft difficulties (and every thing worth knowing or having is attended with fome) ftops fhort, contents itfelf with eafy, and confequently, fuperficial knowledge, and prefers a great degree of ignorance to a fmall degree of trouble. Thefe people either think, or reprefent, moft things as impoffible; whereas few things are fo, to industry and activity. But difficulties feem to them impoffibilities, or at least they pretend to think them fo, by way of excufe for their lazinefs. An hour's attention to the fame object is too laborious for them; they take every thing in the light in which it first prefents itself, never confider it in all its different views; and, in fhort, never think it through. The confequence of this is, that when they come to fpeak upon these fubjects, before people who have confidered them with attention, they only difcover their own ignorance and lazinefs, and lay themselves open to anfwers that put them in confufion. Do not then be difcouraged by the first difficulties, but contra audentior ito † ; and refolve to go to the bottom of all those things, which every gentleman ought to know well. Thofe arts or fciences, which are peculiar to certain profeffions, need not be deeply known by thofe who are not intended for thofe profeflions. As for inftance; fortification and navigation; of both which a fuperficial and general knowledge, fuch as the common course of converfation, with a very little inquiry on your part, will give you, is fufficient. Though, by the way, a little more knowledge of fortification may be of fome ufe to you; as the events of war, in fieges, make many of the terms of that science occur frequently in common converfations; and one would be forry to fay, like the marquis de Mafcarille, in Moliere's Précieufes Ridicules, when he hears of une demie lune ;-Ma foi c'étoit bien une lune toute entiere ! But thofe things which every gentleman, independently of profeffion, fhould know, he ought to know well, and dive into all the depths of them. Such are languages, hiftory, and geography, ancient and modern; philofophy, rational logic, rhetoric; and, for you particularly, the conftitutions, and the civil and military ftate of every country in Europe. This, I confels, is a pretty large circle of knowledge, attended with fome difficulties, and requiring fome trouble; which however, an active and induftrions mind will overcome, and be amply repaid. The trifling and frivolous mind is always bufied, but to little purpose ; it takes little objects for great ones, and throws away upon trifles that time and attention which only important things deferve. Knick-knacks, butterflies, fhells, infects, &c are the objects of their most serious re fearches. They contemplate the drefs, not the characters, of the company they keep. They attend more to the decorations of a play, than to the fenfe of it, and to the ceremonies of a court, more than to its politics.. But dare more ardently. An half-moon-Faith it was a full-moon! Such an employment of time is an abfolute lofs of it. You have now, at moft, three years to employ, either well or ill; for, as I have often told you, you will be, all your life, what you fhall be three years hence. I entreat you then to reflect! Will you throw away this time, either in laziness or in trifles? Or will you not rather employ every moment of it in a manner that muft fo foon reward you, with fo much pleafure, figure, & character? I cannot, I will not doubt of your choice. Read only useful books, and never quit a fubject till you are thoroughly mafter of it, but read and inquire on till then. When you are in company, bring the converfation to fome ufeful fubject, but à portée + of that company. Points of hiftory, matters of literature, the cuftoms of particular countries, the feveral orders of knighthood, as Teutonic, Maltefe, &c. are furely better fubjects of converfation than the weather, drefs, or fiddle-faddle ftories, that carry no information along with them. The characters of kings and great men, are only to be learned in converfation; for they are never fairly written during their lives. This, therefore, is an entertaining inftructive fubject of converfation, and will likewife give you an opportunity of obferving how very differently characters are given, from the different paffions and views of thofe who give them. Never be afhamed nor afraid of afking questions; for, if they lead to information, and if you accompany them with fome excufe, you will never be reckoned an im pertinent or rude queftioner. All thofe things, in the common courfe of life, depend entirely upon the manner; and, in that refpect, the vulgar faying is true, That one man may better fteal a horse, than another look over the hedge. There are few things that may not be faid, in fome manner or other : either in a feeming confidence, or a genteel irony, or introduced with wit and one great part of the knowledge of the world confifts in knowing when, and where, to make use of thefe different manners. The graces of the perfon, the countenance, and the way of fpeaking, contribute La the line of. 131 fo much to this, that I am convinced, the very fame thing, faid by a genteel perfon, in an engaging way, and gracefully and diftinctly spoken, would pleafewhich would fhock, if muttered out by an awkward figure, with a fullen, ferious countenance, The poets always reprefen Venus as attended by the three Graces, to intimate, that even beauty will not do without. I think they fhould have given Minerva three alfo; for without them, I am fure, learning is very unattractive. Invoke them, then, diftinctly, to accompany all your words and actions.-Adieu ! LETTER LIX. Objervations on Good Conduct...Treaty of Munster...Rife of the Houje of Brandenburg. DEAR BOY, Yo London, Auguft the 23d. OUR friend Mr. Eliot has dined with me twice fince I returned hither; and I can fay with truth, that, while I had the feals,I never examined or fifted a ftateprifoner, with fo much care and curiofity, as I did him, Nay, I did more, for, contrary to the laws of this country, I gave him, in fome manner the question ordinary and extraordinary; and I have infinite pleafure in telling you, that the rack, which I put him to, did not extort from him one fingle word that was not fuch as I wished to hear of you. I heartily congratu late you upon fuch an advantageous teftimony, from fo credible a witnefs. Laudari a laudato viro, § is one of the greateft pleasures and honours a rational being can have may you long continue to deserve it! Your averfion to drinking, and your dislike to gaming, which Mr. Eliot affures me are both very ftrong, give me the greateft joy imaginable for your fake; as the former would ruin both your conftitution and understanding, and the latter your fortune and character. Mr. Harte wrote me word fome time ago, and Mr. Eliot confirms it now, that you employ your pin-money in a very dif To be praised by a praife-worthy man. |