第269章 LETTER CLXXIII(1)

LONDON,July 21,O.S.1752

MY DEAR FRIEND:By my calculation this letter may probably arrive at Hanover three or four days before you;and as I am sure of its arriving there safe,it shall contain the most material points that I have mentioned in my several letters to you since you left Paris,as if you had received but few of them,which may very probably be the case.

As for your stay at Hanover,it must not IN ALL EVENTS be less than a month;but if things turn out to Your SATISFACTION,it may be just as long as you please.From thence you may go wherever you like;for I have so good an opinion of your judgment,that I think you will combine and weigh all circumstances,and choose the properest places.Would you saunter at some of the small courts,as Brunswick,Cassel,etc.,till the Carnival at Berlin?You are master.Would you pass a couple of months at Ratisbon,which might not be ill employed?'A la bonne heure'.Would you go to Brussels,stay a month or two there with Dayrolles,and from thence to Mr.Yorke,at The Hague?With all my heart.Or,lastly,would you go to Copenhagen and Stockholm?'Lei e anche Padrone':choose entirely for yourself,without any further instructions from me;only let me know your determination in time,that I may settle your credit,in case you go to places where at present you have none.Your object should be to see the 'mores multorum hominum et urbes';begin and end it where you please.

By what you have already seen of the German courts,I am sure you must have observed that they are much more nice and scrupulous,in points of ceremony,respect and attention,than the greater courts of France and England.You will,therefore,I am persuaded,attend to the minutest circumstances of address and behavior,particularly during your stay at Hanover,which (I will repeat it,though I have said it often to you already)is the most important preliminary period of your whole life.

Nobody in the world is more exact,in all points of good-breeding,than the King;and it is the part of every man's character,that he informs himself of first.The least negligence,or the slightest inattention,reported to him,may do you infinite prejudice:as their contraries would service.

If Lord Albemarle (as I believe he did)trusted you with the secret affairs of his department,let the Duke of Newcastle know that he did so;which will be an inducement to him to trust you too,and possibly to employ you in affairs of consequence.Tell him that,though you are young,you know the importance of secrecy in business,and can keep a secret ;that I have always inculcated this doctrine into you,and have,moreover,strictly forbidden you ever to communicate,even to me,any matters of a secret nature,which you may happen to be trusted with in the course of business.

As for business,I think I can trust you to yourself;but I wish I could say as much for you with regard ,to those exterior accomplishments,which are absolutely necessary to smooth and shorten the way to it.Half the business is done,when one has gained the heart and the affections of those with whom one is to transact it.Air and address must begin,manners and attention must finish that work.I will let you into one secret concerning myself;which is,that I owe much more of the success which I have had in the world to my manners,than to any superior degree of merit or knowledge.I desired to please,and I neglected none of the means.This,I can assure you,without any false modesty,is the truth:

You have more knowledge than I had at your age,but then I had much more attention and good-breeding than you.Call it vanity,if you please,and possibly it was so;but my great object was to make every man I met with like me,and every woman love me.I often succeeded;but why?By taking great pains,for otherwise I never should:my figure by no means entitled me to it;and I had certainly an up-hill game;whereas your countenance would help you,if you made the most of it,and proscribed for ever the guilty,gloomy,and funereal part of it.Dress,address,and air,would become your best countenance,and make your little figure pass very well.

If you have time to read at Hanover,pray let the books you read be all relative to the history and constitution of that country;which I would have you know as correctly as any Hanoverian in the whole Electorate.