第32章 LETTER XXVIII

LONDON,February 13,O.S.1748

DEAR BOY:your last letter gave me a very satisfactory account of your manner of employing your time at Leipsig.Go on so but for two years more,and,I promise you,that you will outgo all the people of your age and time.I thank you for your explanation of the 'Schriftsassen',and 'Amptsassen';and pray let me know the meaning of the 'Landsassen'.I am very willing that you should take a Saxon servant,who speaks nothing but German,which will be a sure way of keeping up your German,after you leave Germany.But then,I would neither have that man,nor him whom you have already,put out of livery;which makes them both impertinent and useless.I am sure,that as soon as you shall have taken the other servant,your present man will press extremely to be out of livery,and valet de chambre;which is as much as to say,that he will curl your hair and shave you,but not condescend to do anything else.I therefore advise you,never to have a servant out of livery;and,though you may not always think proper to carry the servant who dresses you abroad in the rain and dirt,behind a coach or before a chair,yet keep it in your power to do so,if you please,by keeping him in livery.

I have seen Monsieur and Madame Flemming,who gave me a very good account of you,and of your manners,which to tell you the plain truth,were what I doubted of the most.She told me,that you were easy,and not ashamed:

which is a great deal for an Englishman at your age.

I set out for Bath to-morrow,for a month;only to be better than well,and enjoy,in,quiet,the liberty which I have acquired by the resignation of the seals.You shall hear from me more at large from thence;and now good night to you.