<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0312" id="link2H_4_0312"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCCXI </h2>
<h3> TO MRS. STANHOPE, THEN AT PARIS </h3>
<p>LONDON, March 16, 1769.</p>
<p>MADAM: A troublesome and painful inflammation in my eyes obliges me to use
another hand than my own to acknowledge the receipt of your letter from
Avignon, of the 27th past.</p>
<p>I am extremely surprised that Mrs. du Bouchet should have any objection to
the manner in which your late husband desired to be buried, and which you,
very properly, complied with. All I desire for my own burial is not to be
buried alive; but how or where, I think must be entirely indifferent to
every rational creature.</p>
<p>I have no commission to trouble you with, during your stay at Paris; from
whence, I wish you and the boys a good journey home, where I shall be very
glad to see you all; and assure you of my being, with great truth, your
faithful, humble servant, CHESTERFIELD.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0313" id="link2H_4_0313"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCCXII </h2>
<h3> TO THE SAME, AT LONDON </h3>
<p>MADAM: The last time that I had the pleasure of seeing you, I was so taken
up in playing with the boys that I forgot their more important affairs.
How soon would you have them placed at school? When I know your pleasure
as to that, I will send to Monsieur Perny, to prepare everything for their
reception. In the meantime, I beg that you will equip them thoroughly with
clothes, linen, etc., all good, but plain; and give me the account, which
I will pay; for I do not intend that, from, this time forward the two boys
should cost you one shilling. I am, with great truth, Madam, your
faithful, humble servant, CHESTERFIELD.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0314" id="link2H_4_0314"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCCXIII </h2>
<p>MADAM: As some day must be fixed for sending the boys to school, do you
approve of the 8th of next month? By which time the weather will probably
be warm and settled, and you will be able to equip them completely.</p>
<p>I will upon that day send my coach to you, to carry you and the boys to
Loughborough House, with all their immense baggage. I must recommend to
you, when you leave them there, to suppress, as well as you can, the
overgrowings of maternal tenderness; which would grieve the poor boys the
more, and give them a terror of their new establishment. I am, with great
truth, Madam, your faithful, humble servant, CHESTERFIELD.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0315" id="link2H_4_0315"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCCXIV </h2>
<h3> BATH, October 11, 1769. </h3>
<p>MADAM: Nobody can be more willing and ready to obey orders than I am; but
then I must like the orders and the orderer. Your orders and yourself come
under this description; and therefore I must give you an account of my
arrival and existence, such as it is, here. I got hither last Sunday, the
day after I left London, less fatigued than I expected to have been; and
now crawl about this place upon my three legs, but am kept in countenance
by many of my fellow-crawlers; the last part of the Sphinx's riddle
approaches, and I shall soon end, as I began, upon all fours.</p>
<p>When you happen to see either Monsieur or Madame Perny, I beg you will
give them this melancholic proof of my caducity, and tell them that the
last time I went to see the boys, I carried the Michaelmas quarterage in
my pocket; and when I was there I totally forgot it; but assure them, that
I have not the least intention to bilk them, and will pay them faithfully
the two quarters together, at Christmas.</p>
<p>I hope our two boys are well, for then I am sure you are so. I am, with
great truth and esteem, your most faithful, humble servant, CHESTERFIELD.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0316" id="link2H_4_0316"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCCXV </h2>
<h3> BATH, October 28, 1769. </h3>
<p>MADAM: Your kind anxiety for my health and life is more than, in my
opinion, they are both worth; without the former the latter is a burden;
and, indeed, I am very weary of it. I think I have got some benefit by
drinking these waters, and by bathing, for my old stiff, rheumatic limbs;
for, I believe, I could now outcrawl a snail, or perhaps even a tortoise.</p>
<p>I hope the boys are well. Phil, I dare say, has been in some scrapes; but
he will get triumphantly out of them, by dint of strength and resolution.
I am, with great truth and esteem, your most faithful, humble servant,
CHESTERFIELD.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0317" id="link2H_4_0317"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCCXVI </h2>
<h3> BATH, November 5, 1769. </h3>
<p>MADAM: I remember very well the paragraph which you quote from a letter of
mine to Mrs. du Bouchet, and see no reason yet to retract that opinion, in
general, which at least nineteen widows in twenty had authorized. I had
not then the pleasure of your acquaintance: I had seen you but twice or
thrice; and I had no reason to think that you would deviate, as you have
done, from other widows, so much as to put perpetual shackles upon
yourself, for the sake of your children. But (if I may use a vulgarism)
one swallow makes no summer: five righteous were formerly necessary to
save a city, and they could not be found; so, till I find four more such
righteous widows as yourself, I shall entertain my former notions of
widowhood in general.</p>
<p>I can assure you that I drink here very soberly and cautiously, and at the
same time keep so cool a diet that I do not find the least symptom of
heat, much less of inflammation. By the way, I never had that complaint,
in consequence of having drank these waters; for I have had it but four
times, and always in the middle of summer. Mr. Hawkins is timorous, even
to minutia, and my sister delights in them.</p>
<p>Charles will be a scholar, if you please; but our little Philip, without
being one, will be something or other as good, though I do not yet guess
what. I am not of the opinion generally entertained in this country, that
man lives by Greek and Latin alone; that is, by knowing a great many words
of two dead languages, which nobody living knows perfectly, and which are
of no use in the common intercourse of life. Useful knowledge in my
opinion consists of modern languages, history, and geography; some Latin
may be thrown into the bargain, in compliance with custom, and for closet
amusement.</p>
<p>You are, by this time, certainly tired with this long letter, which I
could prove to you from Horace's own words (for I am a scholar) to be a
bad one; he says, that water-drinkers can write nothing good: so I am,
with real truth and esteem, your most faithful, humble servant,
CHESTERFIELD.</p>
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