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<h2> LETTER CLXVIII </h2>
<h3> LONDON, May 31, O. S. 1752 </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: The world is the book, and the only one to which, at
present, I would have you apply yourself; and the thorough knowledge of it
will be of more use to you, than all the books that ever were read. Lay
aside the best book whenever you can go into the best company; and depend
upon it, you change for the better. However, as the most tumultuous life,
whether of business or pleasure, leaves some 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 those moments (which will and ought to be but
few) in the most advantageous manner. Throw away none of your time upon
those trivial, futile books, published by idle or necessitous authors, for
the amusement of idle and ignorant readers; such sort of books swarm and
buzz about one every day; flap them away, they have no sting. 'Certum pete
finem', have some one object for those leisure moments, and pursue that
object invariably till you have attained it; and then take some other. For
instance, considering your destination, I would advise you to single out
the most remarkable and interesting eras of modern history, and confine
all your reading to that ERA. If you pitch upon the Treaty of Munster (and
that is the proper period to begin with, in the course which I am now
recommending), do not interrupt it by dipping and deviating into other
books, unrelative to it; but consult only the most authentic histories,
letters, memoirs, and negotiations, relative to that great transaction;
reading and comparing them, with all that caution and distrust 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 Pyrenees: which was calculated to lay, and in effect did lay, the
succession of the House of Bourbon to the crown of Spain. Pursue that in
the same manner, singling, out of the millions of volumes written upon
that occasion, 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 Ryswick, postscripts in, a manner to
those of Munster and the Pyrenees. Those two transactions have had great
light thrown upon them by the publication of many authentic and original
letters and pieces. The concessions made at the Treaty of Ryswick, by the
then triumphant Lewis the Fourteenth, astonished all those who viewed
things only superficially; but, I should think, must have been easily
accounted for by those who knew the state of the kingdom of Spain, as well
as of the health of its King, Charles the Second, at that time. The
interval between the conclusion of the peace of Ryswick, and the breaking
out of the great war in 1702, though a short, is a most interesting one.
Every week of it almost produced some great event. Two partition treaties,
the death of the King of Spain, his unexpected will, and the acceptance of
it by Lewis the Fourteenth, in violation of the second treaty of
partition, just signed and ratified by him. Philip the Fifth quietly and
cheerfully received in Spain, and acknowledged as King of it, by most of
those powers, who afterward joined in an alliance to dethrone him. I
cannot help making this observation upon that occasion: That character has
often more to do in great transactions, than prudence and sound policy;
for Lewis the Fourteenth gratified his personal pride, by giving a Bourbon
King to Spain, at the expense of the true interest of France; which would
have acquired much more solid and permanent strength by the addition of
Naples, Sicily, and Lorraine, upon the footing of the second partition
treaty; and I think it was fortunate for Europe that he preferred the
will. It is true, he might hope to influence his Bourbon posterity in
Spain; he knew too well how weak the ties of blood are among men, and how
much weaker still they are among princes. The Memoirs of Count Harrach,
and of Las Torres, give a good deal of light into the transactions of the
Court of Spain, previous to the death of that weak King; and the Letters
of the Marachal d'Harcourt, then the French Ambassador in Spain, of which
I have authentic copies in manuscript, from the year 1698 to 1701, have
cleared up that whole affair to me. I keep that book for you. It appears
by those letters, that the impudent conduct of the House of Austria, with
regard to the King and Queen of Spain, and Madame Berlips, her favorite,
together with the knowledge of the partition treaty, which incensed all
Spain, were the true and only reasons of the will, in favor of the Duke of
Anjou. Cardinal Portocarrero, nor any of the Grandees, were bribed by
France, as was generally reported and believed at that time; which
confirms Voltaire's anecdote upon that subject. Then opens a new scene and
a new century; Lewis the Fourteenth's good fortune forsakes him, till the
Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene make him amends for all the mischief
they had done him, by making the allies refuse the terms of peace offered
by him at Gertruydenberg. How the disadvantageous peace of Utrecht was
afterward brought on, you have lately read; and you cannot inform yourself
too minutely of all those circumstances, that treaty 'being the freshest
source from whence the late transactions of Europe have flowed. The
alterations that have since happened, whether by wars or treaties, are so
recent, that all the written accounts are to be helped out, proved, or
contradicted, by the oral ones of almost every informed person, of a
certain age or rank in life. For the facts, dates, and original pieces of
this century, you will find them in Lamberti, till the year 1715, and
after that time in Rousset's 'Recueil'.</p>
<p>I do not mean that you should plod hours together in researches of this
kind: no, you may employ your time more usefully: but I mean, that you
should make the most of the moments you do employ, by method, and the
pursuit of one single object at a time; nor should I call it a digression
from that object, if when you meet with clashing and jarring pretensions
of different princes to the same thing, you had immediately recourse to
other books, in which those several pretensions were clearly stated; on
the contrary, that is the only way of remembering those contested rights
and claims: for, were a man to read 'tout de suite', Schwederus's
'Theatrum Pretensionum', he would only be confounded by the variety, and
remember none of them; whereas, by examining them occasionally, as they
happen to occur, either in the course of your historical reading, or as
they are agitated in your own times, you will retain them, by connecting
them with those historical facts which occasioned your inquiry. For
example, had you read, in the course of two or three folios of
Pretensions, those, among others, of the two Kings of England and Prussia
to Oost Frise, it is impossible, that you should have remembered them; but
now, that they are become the debated object at the Diet at Ratisbon, and
the topic of all political conversations, if you consult both books and
persons concerning them, and inform yourself thoroughly, you will never
forget them as long as you live. You will hear a great deal of them ow one
side, at Hanover, and as much on the other side, afterward, at Berlin:
hear both sides, and form your own opinion; but dispute with neither.</p>
<p>Letters from foreign ministers to their courts, and from their courts to
them, are, if genuine, the best and most authentic records you can read,
as far as they go. Cardinal d'Ossat's, President Jeanin's, D'Estrade's,
Sir William Temple's, will not only inform your mind, but form your style;
which, in letters of business, should be very plain and simple, but, at
the same time, exceedingly clear, correct, and pure.</p>
<p>All that I have said may be reduced to these two or three plain
principles: 1st, That you should now read very little, but converse a
great deal; 2d, To read no useless, unprofitable books; and 3d, That those
which you do read, may all tend to a certain object, and be relative to,
and consequential of each other. In this method, half an hour's reading
every day will carry you a great way. People seldom know how to employ
their time to the best advantage till they have too little left to employ;
but if, at your age, in the beginning of life, people would but consider
the value of it, and put every moment to interest, it is incredible what
an additional fund of knowledge and pleasure such an economy would bring
in. I look back with regret upon that large sum of time, which, in my
youth, I lavished away idly, without either improvement or pleasure. Take
warning betimes, and enjoy every moment; pleasures do not commonly last so
long as life, and therefore should not be neglected; and the longest life
is too short for knowledge, consequently every moment is precious.</p>
<p>I am surprised at having received no letter from you since you left Paris.
I still direct this to Strasburgh, as I did my two last. I shall direct my
next to the post house at Mayence, unless I receive, in the meantime,
contrary instructions from you. Adieu. Remember les attentions: they must
be your passports into good company.</p>
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