第18章 LETTER XV

LONDON,October 2,O.S.1747

DEAR BOY:By your letter of the 18th past,N.S.,I find that you are a tolerably good landscape painter,and can present the several views of Switzerland to the curious.I am very glad of it,as it is a proof of some attention;but I hope you will be as good a portrait painter,which is a much more noble science.By portraits,you will easily judge,that I do not mean the outlines and the coloring of the human figure;but the inside of the heart and mind of man.This science requires more attention,observation,and penetration,than the other;as indeed it is infinitely more useful.Search,therefore,with the greatest care,into the characters of those whom you converse with;endeavor to discover their predominant passions,their prevailing weaknesses,their vanities,their follies,and their humors,with all the right and wrong,wise and silly springs of human actions,which make such inconsistent and whimsical beings of us rational creatures.A moderate share of penetration,with great attention,will infallibly make these necessary discoveries.This is the true knowledge of the world;and the world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description;one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it.The scholar,who in the dust of his closet talks or writes of the world,knows no more of it,than that orator did of war,who judiciously endeavored to instruct Hannibal in it.Courts and camps are the only places to learn the world in.There alone all kinds of characters resort,and human nature is seen in all the various shapes and modes,which education,custom,and habit give it;whereas,in all other places,one local mode generally prevails,and producing a seeming though not a real sameness of character.For example,one general mode distinguishes an university,another a trading town,a third a seaport town,and so on;whereas,at a capital,where the Prince or the Supreme Power resides,some of all these various modes are to be seen and seen in action too,exerting their utmost skill in pursuit of their several objects.Human nature is the same all over the world;but its operations are so varied by education and habit,that one must see it in all its dresses in order to be intimately acquainted with it.

The passion of ambition,for instance,is the same in a courtier,a soldier,or an ecclesiastic;but,from their different educations and habits,they will take very different methods to gratify it.Civility,which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others,is essentially the same in every country;but good-breeding,as it is called,which is the manner of exerting that disposition,is different in almost every country,and merely local;and every man of sense imitates and conforms to that local good-breeding of the place which he is at.A conformity and flexibility of manners is necessary in the course of the world;that is,with regard to all things which are not wrong in themselves.The 'versatile ingenium'is the most useful of all.It can turn itself instantly from one object to another,assuming the proper manner for each.It can be serious with the grave,cheerful with the gay,and trifling with the frivolous.Endeavor by all means,to acquire this talent,for it is a very great one.

As I hardly know anything more useful,than to see,from time to time,pictures of one's self drawn by different hands,I send you here a sketch of yourself,drawn at Lausanne,while you were there,and sent over here by a person who little thought that it would ever fall into my hands:and indeed it was by the greatest accident in the world that it did.