<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0078" id="link2H_4_0078"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER LXXVI </h2>
<h3> LONDON, July 30, O. S. 1749. </h3>
<p>DEAR BOY: Mr. Harte's letters and yours drop in upon me most irregularly;
for I received, by the last post, one from Mr. Harte, of the 9th, N. S.,
and that which Mr. Grevenkop had received from him, the post before, was
of the 13th; at last, I suppose, I shall receive them all.</p>
<p>I am very glad that my letter, with Dr. Shaw's opinion, has lessened your
bathing; for since I was born, I never heard of bathing four hours a-day;
which would surely be too much, even in Medea's kettle, if you wanted (as
you do not yet) new boiling.</p>
<p>Though, in that letter of mine, I proposed your going to Inspruck, it was
only in opposition to Lausanne, which I thought much too long and painful
a journey for you; but you will have found, by my subsequent letters, that
I entirely approved of Venice; where I hope you have now been some time,
and which is a much better place for you to reside at, till you go to
Naples, than either Tieffer or Laubach. I love capitals extremely; it is
in capitals that the best company is always to be found; and consequently,
the best manners to be learned. The very best provincial places have some
awkwardness, that distinguish their manners from those of the metropolis.
'A propos' of capitals, I send you here two letters of recommendation to
Naples, from Monsieur Finochetti, the Neapolitan Minister at The Hague;
and in my next I shall send you two more, from the same person, to the
same place.</p>
<p>I have examined Comte d'Einsiedlen so narrowly concerning you, that I have
extorted from him a confession that you do not care to speak German,
unless to such as understand no other language. At this rate, you will
never speak it well, which I am very desirous that you should do, and of
which you would, in time, find the advantage. Whoever has not the command
of a language, and does not speak it with facility, will always appear
below himself when he converses in that language; the want of words and
phrases will cramp and lame his thoughts. As you now know German enough to
express yourself tolerably, speaking it very often will soon make you
speak it very well: and then you will appear in it whatever you are. What
with your own Saxon servant and the swarms of Germans you will meet with
wherever you go, you may have opportunities of conversing in that language
half the day; and I do very seriously desire that you will, or else all
the pains that you have already taken about it are lost. You will remember
likewise, that, till you can write in Italian, you are always to write to
me in German.</p>
<p>Mr. Harte's conjecture concerning your distemper seems to be a very
reasonable one; it agrees entirely with mine, which is the universal rule
by which every man judges of another man's opinion. But, whatever may have
been the cause of your rheumatic disorder, the effects are still to be
attended to; and as there must be a remaining acrimony in your blood, you
ought to have regard to that, in your common diet as well as in your
medicines; both which should be of a sweetening alkaline nature, and
promotive of perspiration. Rheumatic complaints are very apt to return,
and those returns would be very vexatious and detrimental to you; at your
age, and in your course of travels. Your time is, now particularly,
inestimable; and every hour of it, at present, worth more than a year will
be to you twenty years hence. You are now laying the foundation of your
future character and fortune; and one single stone wanting in that
foundation is of more consequence than fifty in the superstructure; which
can always be mended and embellished if the foundation is solid. To carry
on the metaphor of building: I would wish you to be a Corinthian edifice
upon a Tuscan foundation; the latter having the utmost strength and
solidity to support, and the former all possible ornaments to decorate.
The Tuscan column is coarse, clumsy, and unpleasant; nobody looks at it
twice; the Corinthian fluted column is beautiful and attractive; but
without a solid foundation, can hardly be seen twice, because it must soon
tumble down. Yours affectionately.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0079" id="link2H_4_0079"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER LXXVII </h2>
<h3> LONDON, August 7, O. S. 1749. </h3>
<p>DEAR BOY: By Mr. Harte's letter to me of the 18th July N. S., which I
received by the last post, I am at length informed of the particulars both
of your past distemper, and of your future motions. As to the former, I am
now convinced, and so is Dr. Shaw, that your lungs were only
symptomatically affected; and that the rheumatic tendency is what you are
chiefly now to guard against, but (for greater security) with due
attention still to your lungs, as if they had been, and still were, a
little affected. In either case, a cooling, pectoral regimen is equally
good. By cooling, I mean cooling in its consequences, not cold to the
palate; for nothing is more dangerous than very cold liquors, at the very
time that one longs for them the most; which is, when one is very hot.
Fruit, when full ripe, is very wholesome; but then it must be within
certain bounds as to quantity; for I have known many of my countrymen die
of bloody-fluxes, by indulging in too great a quantity of fruit, in those
countries where, from the goodness and ripeness of it, they thought it
could do them no harm. 'Ne quid nimis', is a most excellent rule in
everything; but commonly the least observed, by people of your age, in
anything.</p>
<p>As to your future motions, I am very well pleased with them, and greatly
prefer your intended stay at Verona to Venice, whose almost stagnating
waters must, at this time of the year, corrupt the air. Verona has a pure
and clear air, and, as I am informed, a great deal of good company.
Marquis Maffei, alone, would be worth going there for. You may, I think,
very well leave Verona about the middle of September, when the great heats
will be quite over, and then make the best of your way to Naples; where, I
own, I want to have you by way of precaution (I hope it is rather over
caution) in case of the last remains of a pulmonic disorder. The
amphitheatre at Verona is worth your attention; as are also many buildings
there and at Vicenza, of the famous Andrea Palladio, whose taste and style
of buildings were truly antique. It would not be amiss, if you employed
three or four days in learning the five orders of architecture, with their
general proportions; and you may know all that you need know of them in
that time. Palladio's own book of architecture is the best you can make
use of for that purpose, skipping over the mechanical part of it, such as
the materials, the cement, etc.</p>
<p>Mr. Harte tells me, that your acquaintance with the classics is renewed;
the suspension of which has been so short, that I dare say it has produced
no coldness. I hope and believe, you are now so much master of them, that
two hours every day, uninterruptedly, for a year or two more, will make
you perfectly so; and I think you cannot now allot them a greater share
than that of your time, considering the many other things you have to
learn and to do. You must know how to speak and write Italian perfectly;
you must learn some logic, some geometry, and some astronomy; not to
mention your exercises, where they are to be learned; and, above all, you
must learn the world, which is not soon learned; and only to be learned by
frequenting good and various companies.</p>
<p>Consider, therefore, how precious every moment of time is to you now. The
more you apply to your business, the more you will taste your pleasures.
The exercise of the mind in the morning whets the appetite for the
pleasures of the evening, as much as the exercise of the body whets the
appetite for dinner. Business and pleasure, rightly understood, mutually
assist each other, instead of being enemies, as silly or dull people often
think them. No man tastes pleasures truly, who does not earn them by
previous business, and few people do business well, who do nothing else.
Remember that when I speak of pleasures, I always mean the elegant
pleasures of a rational being, and, not the brutal ones of a swine. I mean
'la bonne Chere', short of gluttony; wine, infinitely short of
drunkenness; play, without the least gaming; and gallantry without
debauchery. There is a line in all these things which men of sense, for
greater security, take care to keep a good deal on the right side of; for
sickness, pain, contempt and infamy, lie immediately on the other side of
it. Men of sense and merit, in all other respects, may have had some of
these failings; but then those few examples, instead of inviting us to
imitation, should only put us the more upon our guard against such
weaknesses: and whoever thinks them fashionable, will not be so himself; I
have often known a fashionable man have some one vice; but I never in my
life knew a vicious man a fashionable man. Vice is as degrading as it is
criminal. God bless you, my dear child!</p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
1 of 2
2 of 2
Previous
Next
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.