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<h2> LETTER CC </h2>
<h3> LONDON, March 26, 1754 </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: Yesterday I received your letter of the 15th from Manheim,
where I find you have been received in the usual gracious manner; which I
hope you return in a GRACEFUL one. As this is a season of great devotion
and solemnity in all Catholic countries, pray inform yourself of, and
constantly attend to, all their silly and pompous church ceremonies; one
ought to know them. I am very glad that you wrote the letter to Lord———,
which, in every different case that can possibly be supposed, was, I am
sure, both a decent and a prudent step. You will find it very difficult,
whenever we meet, to convince me that you could have any good reasons for
not doing it; for I will, for argument's sake, suppose, what I cannot in
reality believe, that he has both said and done the worst he could, of and
by you; What then? How will you help yourself? Are you in a situation to
hurt him? Certainly not; but he certainly is in a situation to hurt you.
Would you show a sullen, pouting, impotent resentment? I hope not; leave
that silly, unavailing sort of resentment to women, and men like them, who
are always guided by humor, never by reason and prudence. That pettish,
pouting conduct is a great deal too young, and implies too little
knowledge of the world, for one who has seen so much of it as you have.
Let this be one invariable rule of your conduct,—Never to show the
least symptom of resentment which you cannot to a certain degree gratify;
but always to smile, where you cannot strike. There would be no living in
courts, nor indeed in the world if one could not conceal, and even
dissemble, the just causes of resentment, which one meets with every day
in active and busy life. Whoever cannot master his humor enough, 'pour
faire bonne mine a mauvais jeu', should leave the world, and retire to
some hermitage, in an unfrequented desert. By showing an unavailing and
sullen resentment, you authorize the resentment of those who can hurt you
and whom you cannot hurt; and give them that very pretense, which perhaps
they wished for, of breaking with, and injuring you; whereas the contrary
behavior would lay them under, the restraints of decency at least; and
either shackle or expose their malice. Besides, captiousness, sullenness,
and pouting are most exceedingly illiberal and vulgar. 'Un honnete homme
ne les connoit point'.</p>
<p>I am extremely glad to hear that you are soon to have Voltaire at Manheim:
immediately upon his arrival, pray make him a thousand compliments from
me. I admire him most exceedingly; and, whether as an epic, dramatic, or
lyric poet, or prose-writer, I think I justly apply to him the 'Nil
molitur inepte'. I long to read his own correct edition of 'Les Annales de
l'Empire', of which the 'Abrege Chronologique de l'Histoire Universelle',
which I have read, is, I suppose, a stolen and imperfect part; however,
imperfect as it is, it has explained to me that chaos of history, of seven
hundred years more clearly than any other book had done before. You judge
very rightly that I love 'le style le r et fleuri'. I do, and so does
everybody who has any parts and taste. It should, I confess, be more or
less 'fleuri', according to the subject; but at the same time I assert
that there is no subject that may not properly, and which ought not to be
adorned, by a certain elegance and beauty of style. What can be more
adorned than Cicero's Philosophical Works? What more than Plato's? It is
their eloquence only that has preserved and transmitted them down to us
through so many centuries; for the philosophy of them is wretched, and the
reasoning part miserable. But eloquence will always please, and has always
pleased. Study it therefore; make it the object of your thoughts and
attention. Use yourself to relate elegantly; that is a good step toward
speaking well in parliament. Take some political subject, turn it in your
thoughts, consider what may be said both for and against it, then put
those arguments into writing, in the most correct and elegant English you
can. For instance, a standing army, a place bill, etc.; as to the former,
consider, on one side, the dangers arising to a free country from a great
standing military force; on the other side, consider the necessity of a
force to repel force with. Examine whether a standing army, though in
itself an evil, may not, from circumstances, become a necessary evil, and
preventive of greater dangers. As to the latter, consider, how far places
may bias and warp the conduct of men, from the service of their country,
into an unwarrantable complaisance to the court; and, on the other hand,
consider whether they can be supposed to have that effect upon the conduct
of people of probity and property, who are more solidly interested in the
permanent good of their country, than they can be in an uncertain and
precarious employment. Seek for, and answer in your own mind, all the
arguments that can be urged on either side, and write them down in an
elegant style. This will prepare you for debating, and give you an
habitual eloquence; for I would not give a farthing for a mere holiday
eloquence, displayed once or twice in a session, in a set declamation, but
I want an every-day, ready, and habitual eloquence, to adorn extempore and
debating speeches; to make business not only clear but agreeable, and to
please even those whom you cannot inform, and who do not desire to be
informed. All this you may acquire, and make habitual to you, with as
little trouble as it cost you to dance a minuet as well as you do. You now
dance it mechanically and well without thinking of it.</p>
<p>I am surprised that you found but one letter for me at Manheim, for you
ought to have found four or five; there are as many lying for you at your
banker's at Berlin, which I wish you had, because I always endeavored to
put something into them, which, I hope, may be of use to you.</p>
<p>When we meet at Spa, next July, we must have a great many serious
conversations; in which I will pour out all my experience of the world,
and which, I hope, you will trust to, more than to your own young notions
of men and things. You will, in time, discover most of them to have been
erroneous; and, if you follow them long, you will perceive your error too
late; but if you will be led by a guide, who, you are sure, does not mean
to mislead you, you will unite two things, seldom united, in the same
person; the vivacity and spirit of youth, with the caution and experience
of age.</p>
<p>Last Saturday, Sir Thomas Robinson, who had been the King's Minister at
Vienna, was declared Secretary of State for the southern department, Lord
Holderness having taken the northern. Sir Thomas accepted it unwillingly,
and, as I hear, with a promise that he shall not keep it long. Both his
health and spirits are bad, two very disqualifying circumstances for that
employment; yours, I hope, will enable you, some time or other, to go
through with it. In all events, aim at it, and if you fail or fall, let it
at least be said of you, 'Magnis tamen excidit ausis'. Adieu.</p>
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