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<h2> LETTER XVIII </h2>
<h3> LONDON, October 30, O. S. 1747 </h3>
<p>DEAR BOY: I am very well pleased with your 'Itinerarium,' which you sent
me from Ratisbon. It shows me that you observe and inquire as you go,
which is the true end of traveling. Those who travel heedlessly from place
to place, observing only their distance from each other, and attending
only to their accommodation at the inn at night, set out fools, and will
certainly return so. Those who only mind the raree-shows of the places
which they go through, such as steeples, clocks, town-houses, etc., get so
little by their travels, that they might as well stay at home. But those
who observe, and inquire into the situations, the strength, the weakness,
the trade, the manufactures, the government, and constitution of every
place they go to; who frequent the best companies, and attend to their
several manners and characters; those alone travel with advantage; and as
they set out wise, return wiser.</p>
<p>I would advise you always to get the shortest description or history of
every place where you make any stay; and such a book, however imperfect,
will still suggest to you matter for inquiry; upon which you may get
better informations from the people of the place. For example; while you
are at Leipsig, get some short account (and to be sure there are many
such) of the present state of the town, with regard to its magistrates,
its police, its privileges, etc., and then inform yourself more minutely
upon all those heads in, conversation with the most intelligent people. Do
the same thing afterward with regard to the Electorate of Saxony: you will
find a short history of it in Puffendorf's Introduction, which will give
you a general idea of it, and point out to you the proper objects of a
more minute inquiry. In short, be curious, attentive, inquisitive, as to
everything; listlessness and indolence are always blameable, but, at your
age, they are unpardonable. Consider how precious, and how important for
all the rest of your life, are your moments for these next three or four
years; and do not lose one of them. Do not think I mean that you should
study all day long; I am far from advising or desiring it: but I desire
that you would be doing something or other all day long; and not neglect
half hours and quarters of hours, which, at the year's end, amount to a
great sum. For instance, there are many short intervals during the day,
between studies and pleasures: instead of sitting idle and yawning, in
those intervals, take up any book, though ever so trifling a one, even
down to a jest-book; it is still better than doing nothing.</p>
<p>Nor do I call pleasures idleness, or time lost, provided they are the
pleasures of a rational being; on the contrary, a certain portion of your
time, employed in those pleasures, is very usefully employed. Such are
public spectacles, assemblies of good company, cheerful suppers, and even
balls; but then, these require attention, or else your time is quite lost.</p>
<p>There are a great many people, who think themselves employed all day, and
who, if they were to cast up their accounts at night, would find that they
had done just nothing. They have read two or three hours mechanically,
without attending to what they read, and consequently without either
retaining it, or reasoning upon it. From thence they saunter into company,
without taking any part in it, and without observing the characters of the
persons, or the subjects of the conversation; but are either thinking of
some trifle, foreign to the present purpose, or often not thinking at all;
which silly and idle suspension of thought they would dignify with the
name of ABSENCE and DISTRACTION. They go afterward, it may be, to the
play, where they gape at the company and the lights; but without minding
the very thing they went to, the play.</p>
<p>Pray do you be as attentive to your pleasures as to your studies. In the
latter, observe and reflect upon all you read; and, in the former, be
watchful and attentive to all that you see and hear; and never have it to
say, as a thousand fools do, of things that were said and done before
their faces, that, truly, they did not mind them, because they were
thinking of something else. Why were they thinking of something else? and
if they were, why did they come there? The truth is, that the fools were
thinking of nothing. Remember the 'hoc age,' do what you are about, be
what it will; it is either worth doing well, or not at all. Wherever you
are, have (as the low vulgar expression is) your ears and your eyes about
you. Listen to everything that is said, and see everything that is done.
Observe the looks and countenances of those who speak, which is often a
surer way of discovering the truth than from what they say. But then keep
all those observations to yourself, for your own private use, and rarely
communicate them to others. Observe, without being thought an observer,
for otherwise people will be upon their guard before you.</p>
<p>Consider seriously, and follow carefully, I beseech you, my dear child,
the advice which from time to time I have given, and shall continue to
give you; it is at once the result of my long experience, and the effect
of my tenderness for you. I can have no interest in it but yours. You are
not yet capable of wishing yourself half so well as I wish you; follow
therefore, for a time at least, implicitly, advice which you cannot
suspect, though possibly you may not yet see the particular advantages of
it; but you will one day feel them. Adieu.</p>
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<h2> LETTER XIX </h2>
<h3> LONDON, November 6, O. S. 1747 </h3>
<p>DEAR BOY: Three mails are now due from Holland, so that I have no letter
from you to acknowledge; I write to you, therefore, now, as usual, by way
of flapper, to put you in mind of yourself. Doctor Swift, in his account
of the island of Laputa, describes some philosophers there who were so
wrapped up and absorbed in their abstruse speculations, that they would
have forgotten all the common and necessary duties of life, if they had
not been reminded of them by persons who flapped them, whenever they
observed them continue too long in any of those learned trances. I do not
indeed suspect you of being absorbed in abstruse speculations; but, with
great submission to you, may I not suspect that levity, inattention, and
too little thinking, require a flapper, as well as too deep thinking? If
my letters should happen to get to you when you are sitting by the fire
and doing nothing, or when you are gaping at the window, may they not be
very proper flaps, to put you in mind that you might employ your time much
better? I knew once a very covetous, sordid fellow, who used frequently to
say, "Take care of the pence; for the pounds will take care of
themselves." This was a just and sensible reflection in a miser. I
recommend to you to take care of the minutes; for hours will take care of
themselves. I am very sure, that many people lose two or three hours every
day, by not taking care of the minutes. Never think any portion of time
whatsoever too short to be employed; something or other may always be done
in it.</p>
<p>While you are in Germany, let all your historical studies be relative to
Germany; not only the general history of the empire as a collective body;
but the respective electorates, principalities, and towns; and also the
genealogy of the most considerable families. A genealogy is no trifle in
Germany; and they would rather prove their two-and-thirty quarters, than
two-and-thirty cardinal virtues, if there were so many. They are not of
Ulysses' opinion, who says very truly,</p>
<p>——Genus et proavos, et qua non fecimus ipsi; Vix ea nostra
voco. <br/> Good night.</p>
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