fituations and diftances; and the latter will point out many things for you to fee, that might otherwife poffibly efcape you; and which, though they may in themselves be of little confequence, you would regret not having feen, after having been at the places where they were. Thus warned and provided for your journey, God. fpeed you, Felix fauftumque fit !* Adicu. LETTER CXLIV. Injudicious Conduct of Parents in general... Faulty Education... Polite Education...Lord Albermarle... Duc de Richelieu, I SEND you the inclofed original, from a friend of ours, with my own commentaries upon the text; a text which I have fo often paraphrafed, and commented upon already, that I believe I can hardly fay any thing new upon it: but, however, I cannot give it over till I am better convinced than I yet am, that you feel all the utility, the importance, and the neceflity of it nay, not only feel, but practife it. Your panegy rift allows you, what most fathers would be more than fatisfied with in a fon, and chides me for not contenting myfelf with l'effentiellement bon; † but I, who have been in no one refpect like other fathers, cannot neither, like them, content myself with 'effentiellement bon, becaufe I know that it will not do your bufinefs in the world, while you want quelque couches de vernis. Few fathers care much for their fons, or, at leaft, moft of them care more for their money; and confequently content themfelves with giving them, at the cheapert rate, the common run of education; that is, a school till eighteen, the univerfity till twenty; and a couple of years of riding poft through the feveral towns of Europe, impatient till their boobies come home to be married, and, as they call it, fettled. Of thefe Happy and propitious be it. The effentially good. who really love their fons, few know how to do it. Some spoil them by fondling them while they are young, and then quarrel with them when they are grown up for having been fpoiled; fome love them like mothers, and attend only to the bodily health and ftrength of the hopes of their family, folemnise his birth-day, and rejoice, like the fubjects of the Great Mogul, at the increafe of his bulk while others, minding as they think, only effentials, take pains and pleasure to fee in their heir all their favourite weakeffes and imperfections. I hope and believe that I have kept clear of all these errors, in the education which I have given you. No weakneffes of my own have warped it, no parfimony has tarved it, no rigour has deformed it Sound and extenfive learning was the foundation which I meant to lay; I have laid it; but that alone, I knew, would by no means be sufficient the ornamental, the fho wish, the pleafing fu perftructure was to be begun. In that view I threw you into the great world, entirely your own mafter, at an age when others either guzzle at the university or are fent abroad in fervitude to fome awkward, pedantic Scotch governor. This was to put you in the way, and the only way, of acquiring thofe manners, and that addrefs, which exclusively diftinguish people of fashion; and without which moral virtues, and all acquired learning, are of little ufe in courts and the great world. They are, indeed, feared and disliked in thofe places, as too fevere, if not fimoothed and introduced by the graces. Now, pray, let me afk you, cooly and feriously, why are you wanting in thefe graces? For you may as eafily affume them, as you may wear more or lefs powder in your hair, more or lefs lace on your coat. I can therefore, account for your wanting them no other way in the world than from being convinced of their full value. up your not With your knowledge and parts, if adorned by manners and graces, what may you not hope one day to be? But without them you will be in the fituation of a man who fhould be very fleet of one leg, but very lame of the other. He could not run, the lame leg would check and clog the well one, which would be very near ufeLefs. LETTER CXLV. Leifure Hours... Ufelefs and frivolous Books...Utility of reading fematically...Short View of the Hiftory of Europe from the Treaty of Munfer...Caution to avoid Disputes. MY DEAR FRIEND, London, May the 31st. THE world is the book, to which, at prefent, I would have you apply yourfelf. However, as the most tumultuous life, whether of business or pleasure, leaves fome vacant moments every day, in which a book is the refuge of a rational being, I mean now to point out to you the method of employing thofe moments (which will and ought to be but few) in the moft advantageous manner. Throw away none of your time upon thofe trivial, futile, corrupting books, published by idle, vicious, or neceffitous authors, for the amufement of idle and ignorant readers: fuch fort of books fwarm and buzz about one every day; flap them away, they have no fting. Certum pete finem, have fome one object for thofe leifure moments, and pursue that object invariably till you have attained it; and then take fome other. For inftance, confidering your deitination, I would advise you to fingle out the moft remarkable and interefting æras of modern hiftory, and confine all your reading to that era. If you pitch upon the treaty. of Munfter, (and that is the proper period to begin with, in the courfe which I am now recommending) do not interrapt it by dipping and deviating into other books, irrelitive to it: but confult only the most authentic hif tories, letters, memoirs, and negotiations, relative to that great tranfaction; reading and comparing them, with all that caution and diftrüft which lord Bolingbroke recommends to you, in a better manner and in better words. than I can. The next period worth your particular knowledge, is the treaty of the Pyrénées; which, was calculated to lay, and in effect did lay t foundation of the fucceffion of the houfe of Bourbon to the crown of Spain. Purfue that in the fame manner, fingling, out of the millions of volumes written upon that occafion, the two or three most authentic ones, and particularly letters, which are the best authorities in matters of negotiation. Next come the treaties of Nimeguen and Rhyfwick, pottfcripts in a manner to thofe of Munter and the Pyrénées. Thofe two tranfactions have had great light thrown upon them by the publication of many authentic and original letters and pieces. The conceflions made at the treaty of Ryfwick, by the then triumphant Lewis the XIV th. aftonished all thofe who viewed things only fuperficial ly; but I fhould think, must have been eafily accounted for by those who knew the ftate of the kingdom of Spain, as well as of the health of its king, Charles the Ild. at that time. The interval, between the conclufion of the peace of Ryfwick, and the breaking out of the great war in 1702, though a fhort, is a moft interefting one. Every week of it almoft produced fome great event. Two partition treaties, the death of the King of Spain, his unexpecca Win, and are acceptance of it by Lewis the XIVth. in violation of the fecond treaty of partition, juft figned and ratified by him.Philip the Vth. quietly and cheerfully received in Spain, and acknowledged as king of it, by most of thofe powers, who afterwards joined in an alliance to dethrone him. I cannot help making this obfervation upon that occafion-that character has often more to do in great tranfactions than prudence and found policy: for Lewis the XIVth. gratified his perfonal pride, by giving a Bourbon king to Spain, at the expenfe of the true inter eft of France; which would have acquired much more folid and permanent ftrength by the addition of Na ples, Sicily, and Lorraine, upon the foot of the fecond partition treaty; and I think it was fortunate for Europe that he preferred the will. It is true, he might hope to influence his grandfon; but he could never expect that his Bourbon pofterity in France should influence his Bourbon pofterity in Spain; he knew ton well how weak the ties of blood are among men, and how much weaker till they are among princes. The Memoirs of Count Harrach, and of Las Torres, give a good deal of light into the tranfactions of the court of Spain, previous to the death of that weak king; andthe Letters of the Maréchal d'Harcourt, then the French ambaffador in Spain, of which I have authentic copies in manufcript, from the year 1698 to 1701, have cleared up that whole affair to me. I keep that for you. It appears by thofe letters, that the imprudent conduct of the houfe of Auftria, with regard to the king and queen of Spain, and madame Berlips, her favourite, together with the knowledge of the partition treaty, which incenfed all Spain, were the true and only reafons of the will in favour of the duke of Anjou. Neither cardinal Portocarrero, nor any of the granlees, were bribed by France, as was generally reported and believed at that time; which confirms Voltaire's necdote upon that fubject. Then opens a new scene nd a new century Lewis the XIVth's good fortune orfakes him, till the duke of Marlborough and prince Eugene make him amends for all the mifchief they had lone him, by making the allies refufe the terms of peace ffered by him at Gertruydenberg. How the difadantageous peace of Utrecht was afterwards brought m, you have lately read; and you cannot inform ourfelf too minutely of all thofe circumftances, that reaty being the fresheft fource, whence the late tranftions of Europe have flowed. The alterations 7hich have fince happened, whether by wars or treaes, are fó recent, that all the written accounts are to e helped out, proved, or contradicted, by the oral nes of almost every informed perfon, of a certain age r rank in life. For the facts, dates, and original ieces of this century, you will find them in Lamerti, till the year 1715, and after that time in Rouffet's Recueil. I do not mean that you fhould plod hours together 1 refearches of this kind; no, you may employ your ime more ufefully but I mean, that you should make he most of the moments you do employ, by method, nd the pursuit of one fingle object at a time; nor fhould |