第56章 LETTER XLIV.(1)

CHELTENHAM,July 6,O.S.1748.

DEAR BOY:Your school-fellow,Lord Pulteney,--[Only child of the Right Hon.William Pulteney,Earl of Bath.He died before his father.]--set out last week for Holland,and will,I believe,be at Leipsig soon after this letter:you will take care to be extremely civil to him,and to do him any service that you can while you stay there;let him know that Iwrote to you to do so.As being older,he should know more than you;in that case,take pains to get up to him;but if he does not,take care not to let him feel his inferiority.He will find it out of himself without your endeavors;and that cannot be helped:but nothing is more insulting,more mortifying and less forgiven,than avowedly to take pains to make a man feel a mortifying inferiority in knowledge,rank,fortune,etc.In the two last articles,it is unjust,they not being in his power:and in the first it is both ill-bred and ill-natured.Good-breeding,and good-nature,do incline us rather to raise and help people up to ourselves,than to mortify and depress them,and,in truth,our own private interest concurs in it,as it is making ourselves so many friends,instead of so many enemies.The constant practice of what the French call 'les Attentions',is a most necessary ingredient in the art of pleasing;they flatter the self-love of those to whom they are shown;they engage,they captivate,more than things of much greater importance.The duties of social life every man is obliged to discharge;but these attentions are voluntary acts,the free-will offerings of good-breeding and good.

nature;they are received,remembered,and returned as such.Women,particularly,have a right to them;and any omission in that respect is downright ill-breeding.

Do you employ your,whole time in the most useful manner?I do not mean,do you study all day long?nor do I require it.But I mean,do you make the most of the respective allotments of your time?While you study,is it with attention?When you divert yourself,is it with spirit?Your diversions may,if you please,employ some part of your time very usefully.It depends entirely upon the nature of them.If they are futile and frivolous it is time worse than lost,for they will give you an habit of futility.All gaming,field-sports,and such sort of amusements,where neither the understanding nor the senses have the least share,I look upon as frivolous,and as the resources of little minds,who either do not think,or do not love to think.But the pleasures of a man of parts either flatter the senses or improve the mind;I hope at least,that there is not one minute of the day in which you do nothing at all.Inaction at your age is unpardonable.

Tell me what Greek and Latin books you can now read with ease.Can you open Demosthenes at a venture,and understand him?Can you get through an "Oration"of Cicero,or a "Satire"of Horace,without difficulty?

What German books do you read,to make yourself master of that language?