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<h2> LETTER XXXIV </h2>
<h3> LONDON, March 27, O. S. 1748. </h3>
<p>DEAR BOY: This little packet will be delivered to you by one Monsieur
Duval, who is going to the fair at Leipsig. He is a jeweler, originally of
Geneva, but who has been settled here these eight or ten years, and a very
sensible fellow: pray do be very civil to him.</p>
<p>As I advised you, some time ago, to inform yourself of the civil and
military establishments of as many of the kingdoms and states of Europe,
as you should either be in yourself, or be able to get authentic accounts
of, I send you here a little book, in which, upon the article of Hanover,
I have pointed out the short method of putting down these informations, by
way of helping your memory. The book being lettered, you can immediately
turn to whatever article you want; and, by adding interleaves to each
letter, may extend your minutes to what particulars you please. You may
get such books made anywhere; and appropriate each, if you please, to a
particular object. I have myself found great utility in this method. If I
had known what to have sent you by this opportunity I would have done it.
The French say, 'Que les petits presens entretiennent l'amite et que les
grande l'augmentent'; but I could not recollect that you wanted anything,
or at least anything that you cannot get as well at Leipsig as here. Do
but continue to deserve, and, I assure you, that you shall never want
anything I can give.</p>
<p>Do not apprehend that my being out of employment may be any prejudice to
you. Many things will happen before you can be fit for business; and when
you are fit, whatever my situation may be, it will always be in my power
to help you in your first steps; afterward you must help yourself by your
own abilities. Make yourself necessary, and, instead of soliciting, you
will be solicited. The thorough knowledge of foreign affairs, the
interests, the views, and the manners of the several courts in Europe, are
not the common growth of this country. It is in your power to acquire
them; you have all the means. Adieu! Yours.</p>
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<h2> LETTER XXXV </h2>
<h3> LONDON, April 1, O. S. 1748. </h3>
<p>DEAR BOY: I have not received any letter, either from you or from Mr.
Harte, these three posts, which I impute wholly to accidents between this
place and Leipsig; and they are distant enough to admit of many. I always
take it for granted that you are well, when I do not hear to the contrary;
besides, as I have often told you, I am much more anxious about your doing
well, than about your being well; and, when you do not write, I will
suppose that you are doing something more useful. Your health will
continue, while your temperance continues; and at your age nature takes
sufficient care of the body, provided she is left to herself, and that
intemperance on one hand, or medicines on the other, do not break in upon
her. But it is by no means so with the mind, which, at your age
particularly, requires great and constant care, and some physic. Every
quarter of an hour, well or ill employed, will do it essential and lasting
good or harm. It requires also a great deal of exercise, to bring it to a
state of health and vigor. Observe the difference there is between minds
cultivated, and minds uncultivated, and you will, I am sure, think that
you cannot take too much pains, nor employ too much of your time in the
culture of your own. A drayman is probably born with as good organs as
Milton, Locke, or Newton; but, by culture, they are as much more above him
as he is above his horse. Sometimes, indeed, extraordinary geniuses have
broken out by the force of nature, without the assistance of education;
but those instances are too rare for anybody to trust to; and even they
would make a much greater figure, if they had the advantage of education
into the bargain. If Shakespeare's genius had been cultivated, those
beauties, which we so justly admire in him, would have been undisgraced by
those extravagancies, and that nonsense, with which they are frequently
accompanied. People are, in general, what they are made, by education and
company, from fifteen to five-and-twenty; consider well, therefore, the
importance of your next eight or nine years; your whole depends upon them.
I will tell you sincerely, my hopes and my fears concerning you. I think
you will be a good scholar; and that you will acquire a considerable stock
of knowledge of various kinds; but I fear that you neglect what are called
little, though, in truth, they are very material things; I mean, a
gentleness of manners, an engaging address, and an insinuating behavior;
they are real and solid advantages, and none but those who do not know the
world, treat them as trifles. I am told that you speak very quick, and not
distinctly; this is a most ungraceful and disagreeable trick, which you
know I have told you of a thousand times; pray attend carefully to the
correction of it. An agreeable and, distinct manner of speaking adds
greatly to the matter; and I have known many a very good speech
unregarded, upon account of the disagreeable manner in which it has been
delivered, and many an indifferent one applauded, from the contrary
reason. Adieu!</p>
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<h2> LETTER XXXVI </h2>
<h3> LONDON, April 15, O. S. 1748 </h3>
<p>DEAR BOY: Though I have no letters from you to acknowledge since my last
to you, I will not let three posts go from hence without a letter from me.
My affection always prompts me to write to you; and I am encouraged to do
it, by the hopes that my letters are not quite useless. You will probably
receive this in the midst of the diversions of Leipsig fair; at which, Mr.
Harte tells me, that you are to shine in fine clothes, among fine folks. I
am very glad of it, as it is time that you should begin to be formed to
the manners of the world in higher life. Courts are the best schools for
that sort of learning. You are beginning now with the outside of a court;
and there is not a more gaudy one than that of Saxony. Attend to it, and
make your observations upon the turn and manners of it, that you may
hereafter compare it with other courts which you will see; And, though you
are not yet able to be informed, or to judge of the political conduct and
maxims of that court, yet you may remark the forms, the ceremonies, and
the exterior state of it. At least see everything that you can see, and
know everything that you can know of it, by asking questions. See likewise
everything at the fair, from operas and plays, down to the Savoyard's
raree-shows.</p>
<p>Everything is worth seeing once; and the more one sees, the less one
either wonders or admires.</p>
<p>Make my compliments to Mr. Harte, and tell him that I have just now
received his letter, for which I thank him. I am called away, and my
letter is therefore very much shortened. Adieu.</p>
<p>I am impatient to receive your answers to the many questions that I have
asked you.</p>
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