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<h2> LETTER XCVII </h2>
<h3> LONDON, December 19, O. S. 1749. </h3>
<p>DEAR BOY: The knowledge of mankind is a very use ful knowledge for
everybody; a most necessary one for you, who are destined to an active,
public life. You will have to do with all sorts of characters; you should,
therefore, know them thoroughly, in order to manage them ably. This
knowledge is not to be gotten systematically; you must acquire it yourself
by your own observation and sagacity; I will give you such hints as I
think may be useful land-marks in your intended progress.</p>
<p>I have often told you (and it is most true) that, with regard to mankind,
we must not draw general conclusions from certain particular principles,
though, in the main, true ones. We must not suppose that, because a man is
a rational animal, he will therefore always act rationally; or, because he
has such or such a predominant passion, that he will act invariably and
consequentially in the pursuit of it. No. We are complicated machines: and
though we have one main-spring, that gives motion to the whole, we have an
infinity of little wheels, which, in their turns, retard, precipitate, and
sometimes stop that motion. Let us exemplify. I will suppose ambition to
be (as it commonly is) the predominant passion of a minister of state; and
I will suppose that minister to be an able one. Will he, therefore,
invariably pursue the object of that predominant passion? May I be sure
that he will do so and so, because he ought? Nothing less. Sickness or low
spirits, may damp this predominant passion; humor and peevishness may
triumph over it; inferior passions may, at times, surprise it and prevail.
Is this ambitious statesman amorous? Indiscreet and unguarded confidences,
made in tender moments, to his wife or his mistress, may defeat all his
schemes. Is he avaricious? Some great lucrative object, suddenly
presenting itself, may unravel all the work of his ambition. Is he
passionate? Contradiction and provocation (sometimes, it may be, too,
artfully intended) may extort rash and inconsiderate expressions, or
actions destructive of his main object. Is he vain, and open to flattery?
An artful, flattering favorite may mislead him; and even laziness may, at
certain moments, make him neglect or omit the necessary steps to that
height at which he wants to arrive. Seek first, then, for the predominant
passion of the character which you mean to engage and influence, and
address yourself to it; but without defying or despising the inferior
passions; get them in your interest too, for now and then they will have
their turns. In many cases, you may not have it in your power to
contribute to the gratification of the prevailing passion; then take the
next best to your aid. There are many avenues to every man; and when you
cannot get at him through the great one, try the serpentine ones, and you
will arrive at last.</p>
<p>There are two inconsistent passions, which, however, frequently accompany
each other, like man and wife; and which, like man and wife too, are
commonly clogs upon each other. I mean ambition and avarice: the latter is
often the true cause of the former, and then is the predominant passion.
It seems to have been so in Cardinal Mazarin, who did anything, submitted
to anything, and forgave anything, for the sake of plunder. He loved and
courted power, like a usurer, because it carried profit along with it.
Whoever should have formed his opinion, or taken his measures, singly,
from the ambitious part of Cardinal Mazarin's character, would have found
himself often mistaken. Some who had found this out, made their fortunes
by letting him cheat them at play. On the contrary, Cardinal Richelieu's
prevailing passion seems to have been ambition, and his immense riches
only the natural consequences of that ambition gratified; and yet, I make
no doubt, but that ambition had now and then its turn with the former, and
avarice with the latter. Richelieu (by the way) is so strong a proof of
the inconsistency of human nature, that I cannot help observing to you,
that while he absolutely governed both his king and his country, and was,
in a great degree, the arbiter of the fate of all Europe, he was more
jealous of the great reputation of Corneille than of the power of Spain;
and more flattered with being thought (what he was not) the best poet,
than with being thought (what he certainly was) the greatest statesman in
Europe; and affairs stood still while he was concerting the criticism upon
the Cid. Could one think this possible, if one did not know it to be true?
Though men are all of one composition, the several ingredients are so
differently proportioned in each individual, that no two are exactly
alike; and no one at all times like himself. The ablest man will sometimes
do weak things; the proudest man, mean things; the honestest man, ill
things; and the wickedest man, good ones. Study individuals then, and if
you take (as you ought to do,) their outlines from their prevailing
passion, suspend your last finishing strokes till you have attended to,
and discovered the operations of their inferior passions, appetites, and
humors. A man's general character may be that of the honestest man of the
world: do not dispute it; you might be thought envious or ill-natured;
but, at the same time, do not take this probity upon trust to such a
degree as to put your life, fortune, or reputation in his power. This
honest man may happen to be your rival in power, in interest, or in love;
three passions that often put honesty to most severe trials, in which it
is too often cast; but first analyze this honest man yourself; and then
only you will be able to judge how far you may, or may not, with safety
trust him.</p>
<p>Women are much more like each other than men: they have, in truth, but two
passions, vanity and love; these are their universal characteristics. An
Agrippina may sacrifice them to ambition, or a Messalina to lust; but
those instances are rare; and, in general, all they say, and all they do,
tends to the gratification of their vanity or their love. He who flatters
them most, pleases them best; and they are the most in love with him, who
they think is the most in love with them. No adulation is too strong for
them; no assiduity too great; no simulation of passion too gross; as, on
the other hand, the least word or action that can possibly be construed
into a slight or contempt, is unpardonable, and never forgotten. Men are
in this respect tender too, and will sooner forgive an injury than an
insult. Some men are more captious than others; some are always
wrongheaded; but every man living has such a share of vanity, as to be
hurt by marks of slight and contempt. Every man does not pretend to be a
poet, a mathematician, or a statesman, and considered as such; but every
man pretends to common sense, and to fill his place in the world with
common decency; and, consequently, does not easily forgive those
negligences, inattentions and slights which seem to call in question, or
utterly deny him both these pretensions.</p>
<p>Suspect, in general, those who remarkably affect any one virtue; who raise
it above all others, and who, in a manner, intimate that they possess it
exclusively. I say suspect them, for they are commonly impostors; but do
not be sure that they are always so; for I have sometimes known saints
really religious, blusterers really brave, reformers of manners really
honest, and prudes really chaste. Pry into the recesses of their hearts
yourself, as far as you are able, and never implicitly adopt a character
upon common fame; which, though generally right as to the great outlines
of characters, is always wrong in some particulars.</p>
<p>Be upon your guard against those who upon very slight acquaintance,
obtrude their unasked and unmerited friendship and confidence upon you;
for they probably cram you with them only for their own eating; but, at
the same time, do not roughly reject them upon that general supposition.
Examine further, and see whether those unexpected offers flow from a warm
heart and a silly head, or from a designing head and a cold heart; for
knavery and folly have often the same symptoms. In the first case, there
is no danger in accepting them, 'valeant quantum valere possunt'. In the
latter case, it may be useful to seem to accept them, and artfully to turn
the battery upon him who raised it.</p>
<p>There is an incontinency of friendship among young fellows, who are
associated by their mutual pleasures only, which has, very frequently, bad
consequences. A parcel of warm hearts and inexperienced heads, heated by
convivial mirth, and possibly a little too much wine, vow, and really mean
at the time, eternal friendships to each other, and indiscreetly pour out
their whole souls in common, and without the least reserve. These
confidences are as indiscreetly repealed as they were made; for new
pleasures and new places soon dissolve this ill-cemented connection; and
then very ill uses are made of these rash confidences. Bear your part,
however, in young companies; nay, excel, if you can, in all the social and
convivial joy and festivity that become youth. Trust them with your love
tales, if you please; but keep your serious views secret. Trust those only
to some tried friend, more experienced than yourself, and who, being in a
different walk of life from you, is not likely to become your rival; for I
would not advise you to depend so much upon the heroic virtue of mankind,
as to hope or believe that your competitor will ever be your friend, as to
the object of that competition.</p>
<p>These are reserves and cautions very necessary to have, but very imprudent
to show; the 'volto sciolto' should accompany them. Adieu.</p>
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