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<h2> LETTER CCXI </h2>
<h3> BATH, October 26, 1757. </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: I arrived here safe, but far from sound, last Sunday. I
have consequently drunk these waters but three days, and yet I find myself
something better for them. The night before I left London. I was for some
hours at Newcastle House, where the letters, which came that morning, lay
upon the table: and his Grace singled out yours with great approbation,
and, at the same time, assured me of his Majesty's approbation, too. To
these two approbations I truly add my own, which, 'sans vanite', may
perhaps be near as good as the other two. In that letter you venture 'vos
petits raisonnemens' very properly, and then as properly make an excuse
for doing so. Go on so, with diligence, and you will be, what I began to
despair of your ever being, SOMEBODY. I am persuaded, if you would own the
truth, that you feel yourself now much better satisfied with yourself than
you were while you did nothing.</p>
<p>Application to business, attended with approbation and success, flatters
and animates the mind: which, in idleness and inaction, stagnates and
putrefies. I could wish that every rational man would, every night when he
goes to bed, ask himself this question, What have I done to-day? Have I
done anything that can be of use to myself or others? Have I employed my
time, or have I squandered it? Have I lived out the day, or have I dozed
it away in sloth and laziness? A thinking being must be pleased or
confounded, according as he can answer himself these questions. I observe
that you are in the secret of what is intended, and what Munchausen is
gone to Stade to prepare; a bold and dangerous experiment in my mind, and
which may probably end in a second volume to the "History of the
Palatinate," in the last century. His Serene Highness of Brunswick has, in
my mind, played a prudent and saving game; and I am apt to believe that
the other Serene Highness, at Hamburg, is more likely to follow his
example than to embark in the great scheme.</p>
<p>I see no signs of the Duke's resuming his employments; but on the contrary
I am assured that his Majesty is coolly determined to do as well as he can
without him. The Duke of Devonshire and Fox have worked hard to make up
matters in the closet, but to no purpose. People's self-love is very apt
to make them think themselves more necessary than they are: and I shrewdly
suspect, that his Royal Highness has been the dupe of that sentiment, and
was taken at his word when he least suspected it; like my predecessor,
Lord Harrington, who when he went into the closet to resign the seals, had
them not about him: so sure he thought himself of being pressed to keep
them.</p>
<p>The whole talk of London, of this place, and of every place in the whole
kingdom, is of our great, expensive, and yet fruitless expedition; I have
seen an officer who was there, a very sensible and observing man: who told
me that had we attempted Rochfort, the day after we took the island of
Aix, our success had been infallible; but that, after we had sauntered
(God knows why) eight or ten days in the island, he thinks the attempt
would have been impracticable, because the French had in that time got
together all the troops in that neighborhood, to a very considerable
number. In short, there must have been some secret in that whole affair
that has not yet transpired; and I cannot help suspecting that it came
from Stade. WE had not been successful there; and perhaps WE were not
desirous that an expedition, in which WE had neither been concerned nor
consulted, should prove so; M——t was OUR creature, and a word
to the wise will sometimes go a great way. M——t is to have a
public trial, from which the public expects great discoveries—Not I.</p>
<p>Do you visit Soltikow, the Russian Minister, whose house, I am told, is
the great scene of pleasures at Hamburg? His mistress, I take for granted,
is by this time dead, and he wears some other body's shackles. Her death
comes with regard to the King of Prussia, 'comme la moutarde apres diner'.
I am curious to see what tyrant will succeed her, not by divine, but by
military right; for, barbarous as they are now, and still more barbarous
as they have been formerly, they have had very little regard to the more
barbarous notion of divine, indefeasible, hereditary right.</p>
<p>The Praetorian bands, that is, the guards, I presume, have been engaged in
the interests of the Imperial Prince; but still I think that little John
of Archangel will be heard upon this occasion, unless prevented by a
quieting draught of hemlock or nightshade; for I suppose they are not
arrived to the politer and genteeler poisons of Acqua Tufana,—[Acqua
Tufana, a Neapolitan slow poison, resembling clear water, and invented by
a woman at Naples, of the name of Tufana.]—sugar-plums, etc.</p>
<p>Lord Halifax has accepted his old employment, with the honorary addition
of the Cabinet Council. And so we heartily wish you a goodnight.</p>
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